Panzerkraft: A Safe Sport
by Sharkycast
Summary: After a high school participant is seriously injured, the Panzerkraft Federation get put under pressure to disband the sport. The Federation finds an unlikely source of help in Erika Itsumi, who is determined that nothing should be changed. She sets out to prove that Panzerkraft is a safe sport. Unfortunately for her, the other schools present some unexpected problems!
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

"Schoolgirl Injured in Tank Sport"

"Safety of Panzerkraft Questioned"

"Tank Accident leads to Serious Injury"

'Oh crap' Erika Itsumi thought. Then she decided to say it out loud.

"Oh crap"

She was looking at a series of recent headlines and not liking what she read.

Erika was currently at home, although tomorrow she would return to the Kuromorimine carrier ship. The truth was she was longing to be back at school. And to be back practicing Panzerkraft. She loved Panzerkraft; she lived for it. She certainly didn't want it stopped, or changed, or be told that it wasn't safe, or that schoolgirls couldn't participate in it anymore.

Which was odd; considered that she was the seriously injured schoolgirl the headlines were referring to.

**Chapter One**

One month earlier:

Erika knew this day was a big day for her, although she had no idea that events were about to unfold that would change her life forever.

There had long been speculation about who would be the Kommandant of the Kuromorimine Panzerkraft team once the legendary Maho Nishizumi, eldest daughter of the current headmistress and matriarch of the Nishizumi style of Panzerkraft, graduated from the school. Erika, as Vice Kommandant, had been widely regarded as a likely candidate, but nothing had been confirmed. Until now.

In an address to the whole team while they were assembled on the parade ground, Maho, with her formidable mother standing silently behind her, had announced that Erika would take over as Kommandant on Maho's departure at the end of the school year. Erika has swelled with pride as Maho, her cherished idol, had praised Erika's skills and instructed the team that they were to follow Erika as if they were following Maho herself.

The Kuromorimine girls had accepted this without question. Maho had then informed them that for the rest of the day they would be split into two groups and would practice the tactics they had learned the hard way when defeated by a team from some upstart school (albeit commanded by Maho's younger sister Miho) during the final of the 63rd National Tournament. Each group was to be a mixed force of heavy tanks, medium tanks and tank destroyers. Maho would lead Red Group; Erika would command Blue Group.

Her injury had occurred so simply and so suddenly. She had been the lead tank in an armoured wedge of five, pushing into the urban district which was being defended by Red Group. As they entered the built up area they began to move into a maze of narrow streets. This was training in direct response to Kuromorimine's defeat at the hands of Miho in the last phase of the 63rd National tournament final. Maho and Erika had recognised that the Nishizumi style was unsuited to built up areas. Rigorous training had been put in place to develop the individual tank commanders' minds so they could operate independently in this close environment.

As Erika's five tanks approached a plaza, Tiger Is of Red Group came into view at the end of a long central boulevard and began firing. The detachment from Blue Group returned fire, moving inexorably forward all the time.

_When you attack, attack hard. Advance in perfect order._

Smoke and dust filled the air and visibility became more and more reduced. Erika, as many Panzerkraft commanders did, was standing in her turret, half out of the commander's cupola, in order to see better. Hardly any of the tank commanders thought this was dangerous. The tank shells used in Panzerkraft were of a much lower velocity than a real anti-tank shell, travelling at thousands of feet per second, would be. They could even be seen coming towards you, allowing you to dodge or duck if needs be. Most shells didn't go that high anyway, as they were aimed at tracks and hulls, and the ones that did could easily be seen and avoided. Most tank commanders were used to this. Erika, while not as good as Maho or Miho, who seemed to have some sort of sixth sense regarding where shells were coming from, nonetheless had reactions that were considered amongst the quickest in Kuromorimine.

Erika was convinced that Red Group would be attempting to emulate the tactics of Miho; using 'rogue' tanks to make use of the network of streets. Down a side street to her right, through the powder smoke and brick dust, Erika thought she saw the sloped outline of a Panther's hull.

Whether it was because she was concentrating on the possible Panther, or distracted by the confirmation that she would be the next Kommandant of Kuromorimine which had been made just a few hours before, or for some other reason, but Erika never even saw the shell that hit her. She suddenly felt a blow like her left upper arm had been whacked by a sledgehammer. She instinctively turned, but instead of her left arm there was only a ripped black sleeve and spurting blood. There was no pain, just shock, but she felt her legs buckle under her as she collapsed back into the turret. Momentarily, her crew wondered what was going on, and then pandemonium broke loose as her gunner and loader, already splattered with poor Erika's blood, did their utmost to help her while her radio operator screamed into the microphone for the practice match to be stopped. Erika was only dimly aware of this, as her senses slipped away into unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

Erika had been blissfully unconscious during her evacuation to hospital. She only woke up the day after the surgery on her left upper arm, with the unnerving realisation that she had lost nearly two whole days somewhere.

She had lost more than that too. Obviously there had been no hope of saving her arm; most of it had been pulverised by the shell. Quite upsettingly for those who made the discovery, her hand and wrist had been found some way down the street from where she was hit. Erika was promised physio, rehab, counselling, and all the other sorts of aftercare that the hospital could offer.

Now, almost a month later, she was ready to return to school. Actually, she considered herself more than ready. Understandably, her parents and older sister had fussed and worried over her, but it had become a bit unbearable.

Not that Erika wasn't worried about her return to school. She would be, as far as she was aware, the only one-armed girl in Kuromorimine, and probably would attract quite a lot of attention as a result. She was also nervous about how she would cope with living on her own in her new state. She wouldn't, however, let any of these doubts or feelings show. She was determined to resume her life and be even stronger than before.

She arrived back on the Kuromorimine carrier ship dressed in casual clothes rather than her uniform. She was wearing light tan three quarter length slacks with canvas sneakers and a pale t-shirt. The short left sleeve of her top was snug around the fairly thick layers of crepe bandage that still surrounded the remaining top third of her left upper arm, the tip of which just protruded past the hem of her sleeve.

There was no one to welcome her; the truth was she had few friends and she had dismissed her hope that her idol Maho Nishizumi might be there to greet her as pure fantasy.

Her mother helped her move some of her stuff back into her room and it was quite a while before Erika could persuade her to leave. Once she had finally gone, Erika sat on her bed, pondering what to do next. The truth was, she was a bit tired from the efforts of moving back onto the carrier ship and all the physical and emotional efforts that had required. She decided to relax and turn in early, ready for whatever tomorrow would bring.

She lay propped on her bed reading an issue of Panzerkraft Monthly until this began to irritate her. It was hard trying to turn the pages with only one hand. Her brain kept trying to send signals to her missing left arm to hold the magazine while her right arm did the turning. Finally she got annoyed and threw the magazine across the room. It was then that there was a knock at her door.

Her heart racing, although she didn't really know why, Erika leapt up from her bed and went to the door. Without really thinking about it, she opened the door so that she remained standing partially behind it, with the left side of her body hidden from the view of her unexpected visitor. Once the door was open, she found herself looking at a short, young girl who she knew as one of the first years on the Panzerkraft team. Without a word, the girl handed Erika a small envelope and then departed.

Erika closed the door again and struggled to get into the envelope. 'Oh crap!' she cursed to herself. The flap was stuck down firmly and she couldn't hold it and open it at the same time with one hand. She used her initiative, and her teeth, and tore the thing open.

"See me in my office tomorrow 0900 - Maho"

Erika's heart fluttered. 'The Kommandant!' she thought, as she ignored what might be behind the meeting and thought about her idol.

….

Erika awoke from a surprisingly good night's sleep. She must have been worn out from the previous day, she mused. She went to throw the bed covers off herself with her left hand, but nothing happened.

'Oh crap… yeah… forgot… no left arm. Get a grip Erika!' she chastised herself. She reversed hands, got up and neatly re-made her bed as she always did. Then she went into the small, pod-style bathroom that her room was equipped with and took her pyjamas off. She used the basin to give herself a thorough sponge bath - sadly a shower was out of the question for a while as the dressings around her arm stump were not allowed to get wet.

After towelling herself dry she got her school uniform out of her wardrobe. It was odd to think that the last time she had put this away, it had been because she had changed into her Panzerkraft uniform on the day that she was confirmed as the next Kommandant.

'Oh crap' she sighed to herself. All that was in jeopardy now, of course.

She perked up her mind and tried to be more positive. 'School will be fine!' she told herself. She could still see and think and walk. She was right handed so she could still use a pen and a computer.

'Who needs two arms anyway?!' she asked herself as she selected some underwear from her chest of drawers. She was sure that she could cope just fine how she was. Two arms were only needed for things like turning magazine pages or opening envelopes or…

'Oh crap!'

...putting on bras, apparently.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Erika was grateful for the nipple-hiding thickness of the Kuromorimine school jersey as she made her way towards Maho's office with the intention of arriving at 08:55. Her left sleeve flapped around too; she was going to have to come up with a way to deal with that.

Maho's summons had been on her usual style – succinct and to the point. It had simply said that the Kommandant wanted to see Erika, but not why. Erika thought she could guess; her arm, her future in the Panzerkraft team...

Erika wondered if she should be in her Panzerkraft uniform. As this meeting was clearly about official team business, Erika rather assumed that Maho would be wearing hers. Erika didn't have a choice, however, as she'd never been issued with a replacement jacket for the one that had been ruined when she'd been injured.

Erika knocked on the door of the Kommandant's office and entered when she heard Maho's voice bidding her to do so.

The first thing that Erika noticed was that Maho was not sat behind her large desk but was standing gazing out of one of the tall windows that overlooked the Kuromorimine Panzerkraft team's parade ground. The second thing that Erika noticed was that Maho was not in her Panzerkraft uniform, nor in school uniform, but casually dressed in civvies. Which was... odd.

"The Headmistress... mother..." Maho began slowly.

'Mother!?' Erika thought. 'Maho never refers to Shiho as 'mother'! This must mean what she has to say is terribly important. Is she trying to... soften it? This is unlike the Kommandant!'.

"...mother has asked me to assist with some work with the Panzerkraft Federation" Maho said, still looking out the window. She turned to face her former Vice Kommandant.

"Kuromorimine needs to change" Maho went on. "I cannot make that change; I do not have time. It is therefore for the best that the new Kommandant take over ahead of schedule."

Erika loved Maho's way of speaking – never a single word wasted. She adored Maho's calm, calculating logic. She did, however, experience a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. 'Here it comes' Erika thought. '"The new Kommandant". I wonder who they are going to replace me with? And to think, but for that one stray shell, I could have been the next Kommandant of the Nishizumi style...'

"Are you planning to stay in Panzerkraft ?" Maho asked. Her impassive eyes; the ones that Erika found so inviting, flickered to Erika's empty sleeve.

Erika's mouth was suddenly dry. "Yes" she managed to force out of her parched throat.

The flicker of those icy eyes had been like a punch in the gut to Erika. Nobody wanted a one-armed tank commander; least of all the famous Nishizumi school. Yet Panzerkraft was her life. Maybe if the new Kommandant didn't want Erika in command of her... no... not her's... her _former_ Tiger II, she might at least let Erika stay on as a crew member. But doing what? She was obviously no use as a loader, or gunner, and driving was probably out too. Maybe as a radio operator...?

"Good!" Maho smiled.

Wow, that was weird.

"I had hoped you would". The smile had left Maho's mouth but it still seemed to linger about those once-cold eyes. She walked round the desk and put her hand on Erika's shoulder. Her right one, fortunately.

"I believe you have the skills we need to change and improve Kuromorimine's fighting style. I would like you to stay in the position of Kommandant. Will you accept?"

…

One very brief mental breakdown later, a dizzy-headed Erika had accepted. Not, however, before she had grabbed Maho in a one-armed hug, burst into tears on her shoulder, and resumed her former position of standing in front of her, all within the space of about four seconds. Maho, for once in her life, had apparently been utterly paralysed and unable to react. As soon as the episode was over they had both come to an instant unspoken agreement that those events had never taken place.

"Good" Maho said again, to restore the normality of the conversation.

Erika's hand sought her handkerchief to dab her still watery eyes. It was in the left pocket of her jacket and it took some awkward scrabbling before she got it out.

"Be on the parade square in one hour" Maho instructed. "There will be an announcement to the team to confirm your position".

'Oh crap. No time wasting then!' Erika thought.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

Back in her room, her mind reeling, Erkia hurried to change into her Panzerkraft uniform. It was only once she had put on the grey socks, the crimson pleated skirt and crimson shirt that she remembered she no longer had a Panzerkraft jacket. Oh crap. She'd have to hurry get one; Maho had probably forgotten that Erika's jacket had been ruined in the last training session. She couldn't appear in front of the whole team in just her shirt; for one, it would never do for the new Kommandant to be not wearing proper uniform, and secondly, the crimson Panzerkraft shirt was a lot thinner than her school jersey and she was afraid of… a couple of points becoming rather obvious, as she was still not able to put her bra on one-handed.

The issued Panzerkraft boots had laces which she wasn't able to tie, but she'd already thought about this and had brought some boots of her own from home. They looked very similar but fastened with a zip up the side, making them very easy to put on or take off with one hand.

She had just put her boots on and was about to rush off in search of a new jacket when there was a knock at her door again.

"Uh… come in?" she said.

The door opened and there stood Maho, now in her Panzerkraft uniform too.

Erika gulped. "Kommandant…" she began. Maho cut her off.

"_Former_ Kommandant, remember? I brought you this". Maho held up what she had been carrying. It was a brand new black Kuromorimine Panzerkraft jacket. Erika's heart fluttered. Maho had remembered! Maho had brought her a new jacket! Maho was her saviour!

"Here - I'll help you" Maho said, turning the jacket round and holding it by the shoulders ready to help Erika put it on.

"I… er… ah…"Erika mumbled as she allowed Maho to help her on with the jacket. For one moment, Maho's hands were on her shoulders near her neck, and Erkia could feel herself going red. She was glad Maho was stood behind her rather than in front, or else Erika was sure that Maho would have noticed the pair of nipples as hard as 75mm shells showing through Erika's shirt. She was glad when she could fasten the jacket to cover her chest.

Erika picked up her Kuromorimine cap and placed it on her head before turning to look at herself in the mirror. Very smart, she told herself. Her left sleeve was the only problem, hanging uselessly as it was. She reached round with her right hand and tried to tuck it into her left jacket pocket to stop it flapping about.

She felt a hand on her right shoulder and a gentle pressure that turned her round to face Maho. Without saying anything, Maho took Erika's empty sleeve and bent it up so that the cuff was at the base of Erika's left lapel. Using a safety pin that had appeared in her hand, Maho pinned the sleeve to the front of Erika's uniform jacket in that position. She then stood back to admire her handiwork and gave a curt nod of approval.

'Wah! The Kommandant personally dressed me! The _former_ Kommandant I mean' Erika thought. She felt that her face was as red as her shirt.

"Ready?" Maho was a girl of few words at times.

Erika nodded and they left her room together. All the way to the parade square they talked about the team; how the Nishizumi style needed to adapt following their defeat; the ideas Maho had; the ideas Erika had. Maho reaffirmed that she had complete confidence in Erika as the new Kommandant and she was certain that Erika was the best person to carry Kuromorimine on to new successes. By the time they reached the parade square, Erika was feeling ten feet tall. She was pretty sure that at that moment she could personally have taken on a Jagdtiger single-handedly and still won.

With all the Panzerkraft team stood smartly on parade, Maho delivered a short address, similar to her one before, re-confirming Erika's position as the new Kommandant and instructing the team to follow her digiently. She then turned to Erika.

'Oh crap! Am I supposed to make a speech?!' Erika suddenly considered.

Trying her best not to look flustered or put on the spot, Erika thanked Maho for her confidence and tried to encourage her teammates.

"... and I am sure that you will all do you best!" she finished with. There was a cheer from the assembled girls - that was unexpected but boosted Erika's mood still further. She had obviously chosen her closing words well. Where had they come from? She was sure she'd heard someone say that sort of thing before. Was it Maho, even? Yes, that must be it; it must be a phrase that the Kommandant… the _former_ Kommandant, had used in pep talks. Erika was sure of it.

"You can dismiss the girls" Maho said quietly to Erika as she was stood by her side.

Wow. Power.

Erika gave her first order as Kommandant of the Kuromorimine Panzerkraft team and the crews fell out to their various duties.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

Erika was side by side with Maho as they walked back towards the school buildings.

"There's a lot to be done" Maho said. "I've told the new Vice-Kommantant that she should have a meeting with you in your office as soon as the parade is over".

'Eh?!' Erika thought. The new Vice-Kommandant?! She hadn't given the matter any thought, but of course now that she had been promoted, her old role was now vacant. Or had been. Maho had evidently filled it while Erika had been off following her injury. Erika didn't know what to think about this. She'd assumed she might have been able to appoint or at least influence the appointment of the Vice-Kommandant, given that this person was going to have to work closely with her. Still, if Maho has made the choice, it must be a good one. Everything Maho did was for the good of the school and the Kuromorimine Panzerkraft team. Maho was always right.

"I have work to do; I will see you later" Maho said, turning away abruptly.

"Hey – where am I meeting the new Vice-Kommandant?" Erika asked hurriedly.

"I told you; in your office" Maho said patiently.

"What office?!" Erika said, confused.

"The Kommandant's office, Kommandant!" Maho said. Was it Erika's imagination, or was there a faint trace of a smile again around those impassive eyes.

'Oh. Yeah. That office.' Erika thought, feeling stupid. Maho left her and Erika headed to what had been Maho's domain, but was now hers.

Erika pushed open the heavy oak doors and stalked into the Kuromorimine Kommandant's office. Her office. In front of her was the huge dark oak desk where Maho used to sit. Where she herself would now be sitting.

Also in front of her, slightly annoyingly, was Koume Akaboshi, no doubt involved in some errand or other.

"Hey" Koume said to Erika as she arrived.

"It's 'Good Morning Kommandant'!" Erika snapped. 'Fuzzy-headed idiot' Erika said to herself. Koume was one of the few girls who had been friends with Miho Nishizumi and had also been involved in the scandalous events that had led to Kuromorimine's defeat in the 62nd Nationals. As such, Erika had quite a low opinion of Koume.

Erika crossed the room and seated herself behind the vast desk.

"I will need to see all the maintenance reports for the tanks; not just the regular ones but for our reserve tanks too…" she said. She was mostly talking to herself, but became aware that Koume was stood in front of the desk and was listening.

"Yes?!" Erika said, looking up at her. "What do you want? I'm very busy. I'm waiting for an important meeting with the new Vice-Kommandant."

Koume stood there with an awkward expression on her face.

"I am the new Vice-Kommandant!" she said.

'Oh crap!' Erika said to herself.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Having reconciled herself to the idea of having Koume as her Vice-Kommandant, Erika set to work to discuss the training needs of Kuromorimine with her.

"There's a lot of work to be done if we are to win the next Nationals" she stated.

"If there is another Nationals…" Koume mumbled in a small voice.

"What do you mean?" Erika snapped.

"Well, you must have seen all the fuss that's been made since your accident? The Federation are under increasing pressure from those concerned about safety to change the sport, and there are those who want to ban it outright! Even if it's not banned, they are talking about not allowing commanders to have any part of themselves outside the tank…" said Koume.

"That's rubbish – how will we be able to see what's going on!?" Erika protested.

"… or there's an idea of each tank having some sort of reinforced Perspex dome over the commander's cupola…"

"That's worse! That will look hideous!" Erika exploded.

"The Federation are fighting back, of course" Koume went on. "They have organised this: The Sensha-do Celebration Day".

"In this school we say Panzerkraft!" Erika scolded.

"I'm just reading out what they are calling it!" Koume protested. "Any way, it's a one day event, with all major schools and a number of minor ones attending. Each school will be putting on a static display, showcasing their tanks, and generally flying the flag for Sen… I mean, for Panzerkraft. All with an emphasis on safety, of course. There won't be any major matches, but there will be some skirmishes, along with driving and shooting competitions. But don't worry! Kuromoremine isn't entering any of those!"

Erika thought about this. "And why the crap not!?" she finally asked.

"Um… because… er… that's not the Nishizumi style" Koume fumbled. "Kuromorimine isn't a source of cheap entertainment to be gawped at by the crowds. When we compete, we do so to win! Er… don't we?"

Erika shook her head. "That was the old Kuromorimine. The new Kuromorimine will take part in these sorts of things! Let me see the list; what are the events?"

Koume scrabbled for a sheet of paper. "Well, the climax event is a three-on-three match with Ooarai Girls' Academy" she explained. "Actually, Ooarai asked if we'd compete against them, but we declined. St. Gloriana are going to take them on."

"Oh crap!" Erika hissed. "If anyone is going to have a match against those brats it's going to be us, understand? We need to put them back in their place after that humiliation in the Nationals. We didn't help that jumped-up school survive closure just to avoid fighting them again. Get me Darjeeling on the phone!"

"I'm not your secretary…" Koume muttered, but nonetheless started to do as Erika asked.

Erika thought deeply. Kuromorimine's inflexibility and aloofness had significantly contributed to their defeat, so they definitely needed to start being more involved in events like this. It was a problem that St. Gloriana were now going to be the ones to face off against Ooarai in the pinnacle event. Now she'd have to negotiate with that tea-obsessed madwoman to see if she'd agree to let Kuromorimine take the honour. Darjeeling probably would be looking forward to an opportunity to continue her unbroken record against Ooarai. Erika wondered what sort of price Darjeeling would demand for switching places.

Erika also thought about the future of the sport. They governing bodies couldn't ban Panzerkraft; they just couldn't! All because of one, silly, albeit horrendous and life-changing accident. There must be accidents in other sports and pastimes, and they didn't risk being shut down. Erika suddenly had a brilliant idea. She took a few moments to congratulate herself on the brilliance of it.

"And after I've spoken to Darjeeling, get me a line to the Panzerkraft Federation!" she called out to Koume.

"I'm not your secretary…" Koume muttered.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

The Panzerkraft Celebration Day was a big event, with most of the major Panzerkraft schools in attendance along with many smaller ones. Many of the bigger, well-funded schools seemed to be trying to outdo each other with their displays. Kuromorimine was no exception - they had an impressive array of heavy tanks and tank destroyers on show, a bier keller with students dressed in traditional Dirndl outfits as waitresses, and were offering free rides in a Panzer III. Above Erika's Tiger II floated a huge banner in Kuromorimine colours: "Panzerkraft: A Safe Sport". This had been part Erika's idea, although it had taken a bit of fighting to get Shiho to agree to it - mainly because she disliked the word 'sport' being associated with Panzerkraft.

Erika was resplendent in her brand new Kuromorimine Panzerkraft jacket, with her empty sleeve pinned up on the left front of her tunic in the same way that Maho had done for her. Following her, with several large folders in their arms, were two of Kuromorimine's first year students, also in uniform.

The folders contained the main part of Erika's idea, which had explained to the Federation over the phone and had their full backing on. It was simple – if all the participating schools were able to show how safe they were and how they had accident-free records, surely the Federation could use this information to thwart the people who wanted to shut down Panzerkraft as a sport. To gather this information, Erika has prepared a detailed questionnaire which she was planning to give out to all the competing schools as she toured the event.

She had hardly set off when she encountered a group of three very tall girls and a short one. From their sport kit, they were instantly recognisable as Ooarai's famous (or infamous, to Kuromorimine) volleyball team. They were known for the expert use of their Type 89 tank, for being experts at volleyball, and for being definitely not experts at pretty much everything else.

They noticed Erika but looked wary of her. Erika was glad that Kuromorimine's Maus commander wasn't present; that girl had developed something of a paranoid hatred of 'Duck Team' and flew into a rage whenever they were mentioned. Erika decided to approach the volleyball team and speak to them, to show that there were no hard feelings (which, in fact, there very definitely _were_!).

"Hello!" she called out to them. The four girls stopped their slow wandering in order to speak to Erika. Erika noticed that the reason they had been slow was that the busty blonde one, Akebi Sasaki, if Erika remembered her name correctly, was limping with a plastic brace strapped round one ankle. The diminutive team captain, Noriko Isobe, also appeared to have been in the wars, as she had one arm resting in the sling.

"Hi" the volleyball girls said collectively, still sounding wary. An awkward silence then ensued, until Erika had an idea how to break it.

"How's volleyball?" she asked. That did it. All of a sudden, the four athletes were desperate to tell Erika about their beloved sport. Erika smiled and nodded at all the jargon, not really caring about their response to her question.

"… and I hit the most amazing spike!" Noriko raved. "But I sprained my wrist doing it" she said, explaining her arm in the sling.

"Tough sport" Erika commiserated, wondering why she'd gone down this route in the first place.

"I rolled my ankle hitting a save" Akebi said, pointing down at her ankle brace.

An idea hit Erika. "It sounds much tougher than Panzerkraft" she said. "I mean, none of you have ever been injured doing that, have you?"

"No!" they all said together.

"The Type 89 caught fire once, but we were fine" Noriko said.

"So…" Erika approached cautiously. "We're trying to stop any changes being made to Panzerkraft, or to stop it being banned completely. I have these questionnaires regarding the safety of the sport. Would you mind each filling one in? Pointing out how Panzerkraft is much safer than volleyball?"

'I really hope these idiots can read…' Erika thought.

Duck Team took the offered forms but still looked sceptical. Erika used her trump card.

"After all, it might be a good idea to make the Federation aware of the volleyball enthusiasts that exist within your club? Maybe there are similar enthusiasts in other schools…"

With that, the members of Duck Team were away.

"Yeah – they might hold a Sensha-do Volleyball tournament!" Taeko piped up.

"Or make volleyball an official post-match activity!" Noriko suggested.

Erika smiled as she left them with their copies of her questionnaire and their insane ideas about combining the two sports.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

As Erika walked, followed by her two minions, the air was full of the roar of engines and the occasional blast of heavy guns going off. As well as all the static displays and stalls, the Sensha-do Celebration day was packed full of live events. Right now, on huge screens positioned all around the central compound, one of the exhibition matches was being shown. Chi-Ha-Tan were on the verge of being wiped out (again) in a mad charge against the sturdy defences of Maginot Girls Acedemy in a four-tank battle. As soon as that farce was over, there would be a shooting match, with a one tank or self-propelled from each entrant firing from a fixed position at static and moving targets.

After their discussion in the office, Erika had entered Kuromorimine in a number of these competitions and the shooting was one of them. Ren Maaru, a former Vice-Kommandant, no less, was one of their best gunners. She usually operated the gun on a StuG III and with her competing, Erika thought they had a fair chance of winning the shooting match.

In entering Ren, Erika had run up against opposition from Shiho, however. Firstly she didn't really approve of these spectacle competitions; secondly she insisted that they use a Jagdpanther. Shiho was of the opinion that the Jagdpanther offered a more stable platform for gunnery. She also felt that the large, sturdy, box-like structure of it was more in keeping with the image of Kuromoremine. Erika secretly wondered if it was more to do with the fact that Ooarai famously used a StuG III in all their matches.

Shiho had relented on allowing her students to enter the exhibition events, but dug her heels in on the Jagdpanther point. Erika was sure, however, that Ren would shoot better, and therefore have a better chance of winning, using the StuG III that she was accustomed to. Shiho wouldn't budge, however, and Erika has been about to give in when a cunning idea occurred to her. In fact it was such a cunning idea it was positively Miho-esque! Erika got Shiho's agreement that Ren would shoot at the event in the first available Jadgpanther Kuromorimine had. Erika then promptly ordered track and engine maintenance on all of Kuromoremine's Jadgpanthers, meaning that not one was ready and operable for the day of the competition. Ren would be shooting from her old, familiar StuG III after all!

Cocking an ear, she could just hear the StuG III fire up its engine and begin to lurch out of the Kuromorimine area on its way to the designated place for the competition. Cheers could be heard from the Kuromorimine girls as they wished Ren luck.

Erika had just resumed her walking when she was approached by four girls wearing Ooarai uniformed but with some very unusual and individual accessories.

'Oh, that bunch of freaks' she said to herself. She recognised the Ooarai school's history club, who also crewed their StuG III.

"Hello Miss Bruce!" said Saemonza; the one who dressed like some sort of archer.

Erika sighed. 'Mad, all of them…'.

"No…" she began. "My name is Erika Itsumi…"

Caesar; the one with the red scarf thing and the mop haircut, shook her said. "Bruce is your soul name!" she explained, without explaining anything.

Erwin, the nutter with the Afrika Korps jacket and hat, spoke up. "Major Ewen Cameron Bruce; a famous one-armed tank officer" she said.

"His tank captured the city of Tsaritsyn on its own!" Oryou said.

"That was on 30th June 1919" Saemonza added.

"Er… right…" Erika said. These guys were very strange!

"We admire and respect you as a leader and for what you are doing for Panzerkraft!" the four history buffs said in unison. They all bowed to Erika. Which was… nice, but unexpected. And still weird.

"Okay… thank you" Erika answered. "So… will I be facing you in the three-on-three battle this afternoon?" she asked, trying to restore some normality to the conversation.

Saemonza shook her head. "We can't say. You will find out soon enough."

"But until then, Ooarai's line up for the match remains a closely guarded secret" Caesar said.

"Like the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask" said Oryou.

"Or like British Ultra intelligence during World War Two" Erwin said.

"That's it!" the other three yelled in unison, pointing their fingers at Erwin as they did so.

'Get me out of here' Erika said to herself.

"Well…um…" Erika struggled to say what she had in mind. However, she had to push forward the new Kuromorimine that she was in charge of. And the new Kuromorimine was… kind.

"…er… good luck in the match anyway! Hope you do well!" she said. And then fled.

The four history enthusiasts looked at each other.

"Was she… being nice?!" Oryou asked,

Erwin shrugged. "I think so. That's unexpected!"

"Like Hannibal's campaign against Rome when he crossed the Alps" said Caeser.

"Or the Japanese defeat at the Battle of Meyongyang" said Saemonza.

"That's it!" the other three yelled in triumph!


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Approaching the St. Gloriana's Girls' College stand, Erika was not in the least bit surprised to see that alongside their tanks they had a tea room set up, serving cakes, scones and dainty sandwiches. And tea, of course.

Seated next to their Churchill Mk VII, Erika spotted the main players in the St. Gloriana team. The second thing she noticed was that they were seated differently. Usually Darjeeling was sat between Orange Pekoe and Assam, while the mad one with the pink hair scampered about like a pet labrador. Erika struggled to remember her name… Rosehip! That was it!

On this occasion, however, Rosehip was seated to Darjeeling's left, with Assam on Darjeeling's right. Orange Pekoe, looking quite subdued, was standing at Darjeeling's shoulder, holding a china cup of tea.

The first thing that Erika had noticed was Darjeeling herself. She was looking like her usual, immaculate, calm self. Her hair was neatly braided and she was wearing her Panzerkraft black skirt and boots. She wasn't, however, wearing her red tunic, as both of her arms and the entire of her torso were covered with an immense plaster cast. It went from her stomach, over her substantial breasts, over both shoulders and extended down both arms. Her upper arms were held out to her sides with a ninety-degree bend at each elbow, so her forearms pointed forwards with her fingers hanging fairly uselessly at the end.

Poor Darjeeling must have sustained some serious injury to warrant needed a plaster cast like that! Erika hoped whatever had befallen Darjeeling had nothing to do with Panzerkraft. No wonder she had agreed to Kuromorimine taking over the Ooarai exhibition match! Erika also noticed that the china cup that Orange Pekoe was holding actually belonged to Darjeeling. Orange Pekoe raised it to Darjeeling's lips every so often so that she could take a sip.

She approached the seated trio.

"Hello Miss Darjeeling" Erika said. Despite her calm and polite manner, Darjeeling could be a force to be reckoned with. It paid to be respectful.

"Good morning, Miss Itsumi" the St. Gloriana captain replied. Orange Pekoe leant in with the cup and Darjeeling took another sip of tea. There seemed to be no signal from either of them for this to happen; Orange Pekoe and Darjeeling just knew exactly when another sip was needed.

"My thanks for taking over the three-on-three exhibition match; as you can see, I'm not currently in a position to take command of our team in the field" Darjeeling said.

"Um… yeah… what happened?" Erika asked.

"Have you heard the phrase 'Curiosity killed the cat'? Sometimes it pays to leave certain questions unasked."

"Er… no I haven't. And… right."

"St. Gloriana's is also deprived of our Crusader commander for the while, so it really is best that we leave taking on Ooarai to you" Darjeeling continued. As she was speaking, she nodded in the direction of Rosehip.

Rosehip looked like she was hating being sat down next to her commander for a prolonged amount of time and was fidgeting uncomfortably. Erika noticed for the first time that there was a pair of wooden crutches on the floor by Rosehip's chair and, bizarrely, a metal scooter propped up behind it.

"Show her Rosehip" Darjeeling commanded.

'She still sounds as if she's talking to a labrador!' Erika thought.

Rosehip moved her legs out from under the table and held the table cloth to one side. Her right leg was in a plaster cast from her knee to her toes.

"Broke my ankle!" she said by way of somewhat needless explanation.

"Ouch… well… I hope you both get better soon" Erika replied.

Darjeeling offered for Erika to stay and have some tea with them, but Erika declined. As she took her leave from the St. Gloriana girls, Assam rose and followed her, soon catching her up and falling into step beside her.

Erika hadn't had much to do with Assam in the past, but she liked what she had seen so far. She didn't talk in riddles and proverbs, unlike her superior, so it least it was possible to follow what she was saying.

"What happened to Darjeeling? It wasn't anything to do with Panzerkraft, was it?!" Erika asked, unable to restrain her curiosity any longer.

"No." Assam sighed. "Miss Darjeeling was complaining that her shoulders were stiff, so Orange Pekoe offered to give her a massage." Assam sighed again. "It appears she doesn't know her own strength. Her massage ended up cracking both of Miss Darjeeling's shoulders, landing her in hospital and then that huge cast that you just saw."

Erika was fighting down the urge to laugh. The elegant Darjeeling, snapped like a dry twig by her own loader! She found it quite an amusing notion.

She asked Assam: "Are Darjeeling and Orange Pekoe… alright? No hard feelings?" Erika was never quite certain exactly what the relationship between Darjeeling and Orange Pekoe was. They were certainly close friends but sometimes it seemed more than that.

Assam shrugged. "Data analysis shows that since Miss Darjeeling got out of hospital, they have spent 32% less time in each other's company than before" she stated.

"Orange Pekoe seems very quiet to me" Erika commented.

"I have no data concerning any change in the number of words she has spoken" Assam said.

'I should damn well think not!' Erika thought. 'Pervert!'

"And Rosehip? What happened to her?" Erika continued her questioning.

"You know how she is always running around. She tripped and fell. Nothing more to it. It was a mathematical certainty that it would happen sooner or later if she didn't slow down" Assam replied.

"Good!" Erika said. She saw Assam's raised eyebrow. "No, not good that she fell! I mean 'good' that it wasn't anything to do with Panzerkraft. You are aware that the Panzerkraft Federation are under a lot of pressure from groups concerned about safety since I lost… lost my… since I had my accident. We don't want anything more that might suggest Panzerkraft is an unsafe sport!"

"It's not" Assam said emphatically. "Statistically, the chances of an accident like yours occurring are one in t…"

"Yeah, yeah, great!" Erika cut in, not wanting to get bogged down in the detail. "Could you do me a favour? Could you make sure the Panzerkraft Federation has all this information? Thanks!"

Assam agreed she would and she left Erika to return to her teammates while Erika continued her tour of the other team displays.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

An 88m shell hit Erika in the back.

Or, at least, that's what it felt like.

It turned out to be a hearty slap on the back from Kay, commander of the Saunders team.

"Hey!" Kay yelled out.

Recovering from the blow, Erika replied in kind. "Hello Kay". Always loud, always boisterous, Kay wasn't exactly Erika's kind of person. But Kay was so friendly to everyone that it was hard not to be friendly back.

"How are you? How is Saunders?" Erika asked, meaning their tank team, rather than the school as a whole.

"Great!" Kay whooped. "We're looking forward to giving Pravda a beating in the big event!" One of the exhibition matches to be held that day was a five against five battle between Saunders and Pravda. It was true that it was 'big' in that it was the match involving the most tanks, but there wasn't the hype or expectation attached to it as there was to the Oarai – Kuromorimine match that Erika would be taking part in later in the day.

"Where's Naomi and Alisa?" Erika asked, noting that Kay was without her usual sidekicks.

"Naomi's taking part in the shooting competition" Kay said, munching on a chocolate bar had suddenly appeared in her hand. "Alisa is watching" she said with her mouth full.

"Aren't you going to watch her too?" Erika inquired.

"Nah; I know she'll win!" Kay said casually. That irked Erika, but she didn't say anything back. Her thoughts, however, must have showed, because Kay reacted.

"Hey! I'm just joking! You Kuro girls are so uptight; you need to relax a bit and have some fun!" Kay said loudly. This irked Erika even more; partly because it was irritating, but partly because deep down Erika knew it was true. They were known as the most serious school, and for good reason.

"Have a bite of cheeseburger?" Kay offered, unwrapping a greasy package.

"Um, no, I'm good" Erika replied.

"You're missing out you know!" Kay said, then promptly devoured the whole burger in a four massive bites like a lion that hadn't eaten for weeks. Erika felt rather disgusted at the spectacle.

"Yeah… so… how's the arm?" Kay said, finishing her last bite. Erika sighed. It was true; since her accident she had found a lot of people wanted to ask her stuff about her missing arm, or how she was feeling about it, but they were too timid to ask directly and pussy-footed around the issue. Kay's approach was straight, at least. At little too straight.

"My arm? Mostly spread all over Kuromorimine's urban training ground" Erika said flatly. She knew this wasn't what Kay had meant to ask, but she felt that giving and equally direct answer might knock some tact into this gregarious girl. Kay looked rather disturbed by what Erika said and took a step back, possibly wishing she hadn't just wolfed down an entire cheeseburger.

Erika looked at her and then laughed. "Hey, you Saunders girls need to lighten up! I was only joking!" Erika spun Kay's previous comment back at her.

"Yeah… right…" Kay agreed, wondering if this was what usually passed for humour in Kuromorimine.

"Right…" Kay said again, more enthusiastically. She gave Erika another hearty slap on the back which made her stagger. "… I'm off to have some tea with Darjeeling. Have you heard what happened? Apparently Orange Pekoe jumped on her or something and broke both of Darjeeling's shoulders! Pekoe's in the doghouse now from what I hear! Anyway…. be seein' you!" With that, she turned and strode off in the direction that Erika has just come from with both her hands stuck in her pockets.

After walking a short distance, Erika turned and looked back toward the St. Gloriana stand. Sure enough there was Kay, who was sat in what had been Assam's seat. She appeared to have draped herself over Darjeeling's plastered right arm and was laughing loudly at something. Darjeeling was listening to her but Rosehip looked like she'd rather be anywhere but there at that moment, broken ankle or not! Orange Pekoe was nowhere in sight.


	11. Chapter 11

Erika continued walking around the various stands until she came across BC Freedom Academy's display. It had an attached patisserie and Erika recognised the team's commander, Marie, sat alone at a table eating a chocolate cake. Erika decided to talk to her.

'Hello Miss Cream-cake. Looking at bit chubby around the face I see. You should give up on all those cakes or else you won't be able to fit into that fancy uniform anymore!' Erika thought as she approached.

"Hello Marie" she said to her opposite number.

"Good morning – would you like some cake?" was Marie's greeting.

"No thank you" Erika declined. "How is your team doing? How come you're not featuring in any of the exhibition matches or shows?"

Marie pushed her half-eaten plate of cake away from her as if she had suddenly lost her appetite.

"Terribly!" she confessed. "I've had to pull us out of the show events thanks to my two vice-commanders."

"Oh no, how come?" Erika asked, searching for gossip.

"They just keep fighting all the time!" Marie wailed. "This time it was worse than usual and ended in a full scale brawl. By all accounts, this time Oshida started it, but I struggle to believe that of someone from the Escalator Faction…"

Erika remembered that BC Freedom Academy was deeply divided between two opposing factions.

Marie went on: "…but it seems this time it got serious and Andou has broken her foot in the course of the fight. Obviously she's out of action now; and I really should punish Oshida or probably both of them, but it would be terrible for morale if I suspended both vice-commanders. So I've pulled us out of all events until they learn to behave!"

Erika commiserated with her cake-eating fellow team commander, but secretly felt that it was no wonder BD Freedom got beaten in most of their matches, given the sad state of their leadership and the bitter animosity between the two factions.

Marie sighed heavily again. "I wish my team could be as good as this cake" she said, pulling the plate towards her again as Erika left her.

Although the Sensha-do Celebration Day was aimed at the high school level teams, Erika was interested to see that some members from university level teams were there as well. Amongst them she spotted Megumi, Azumi and Rumi from the University 'All Stars' team, who styled themselves the "Bermuda Trio", for some strange reason.

She approached to make conversation, mindful of the fact that it might be beneficial to be friendly with members of the higher-level teams.

"Hi there!" she said. They greeted her enthusiastically.

"It's great to see everyone here!" Azumi said.

"And having such fun!" Megumi added.

"Yes" Erika agreed. "And showing how _safe _this sport is too, of course. I'm sure you remember your time in high school teams being very safe?" Erika queried.

"Of course!" they all agreed, nodding enthusiastically.

"Although I did once fall off an ARL44 and broke my leg" Azumi admitted. "I ended up with a cast on my leg from the base of my toes to here..." She lifted her already short skirt to expose even more bare thigh, where she used her hand to mark the level of the medical appliance that she'd worn.

"Yeah and I broke four fingers when I got them shut in the commander's hatch on an M4 Sherman" Megumi added.

Not to be outdone, Rumi join the conversation. "I broke my nose when my T28 came to a really sudden stop and I hit my face on the breach of one of the guns..."

The three of them now seemed to be competition to share the most gruesome and horrific war stories from their times in high school.

"I dropped a 76mm shell on my toe..."

"I bashed my head when my jacket got snagged in the turret and it yanked me out of my chair..."

"I burnt myself on a hot shell casing…"

Erika, who had been about to ask them to join in with her safety questionnaire idea, quickly recoiled from them.

"Yes, yes; I'm sure things are a lot safer now!" she remarked.

"What are those?" Megumi asked, pointing to the stack of paper questionnaires that one of Erika's first year minions was carrying.

"Oh... just something for the high school teams - nothing you need to trouble yourselves with!" Erika said hurriedly, backing away from them. "I should be on my way, um... bye now!"

'So much for 'Bermuda Trio'; 'Calamity Trio' would be more like it!" Erika thought as they parted company.


	12. Chapter 12

**Oorai**

Attracting a lot of attention was the stand of Ooarai Girls' Acedemy. They had most of their tanks on display with some of the crews lounging on them and chatting to the admiring public. There was also a huge banner displaying the words: VICTORS: 63RD NATIONALS

Erika had to mask the rage that suddenly boiled up inside her when she saw this. She forced herself to swallow her ire.

'It's OK… it's fine' she told herself, trying to breathe normally again. 'They're entitled to it; they… grr… _deserve_ it!"

Erika re-aligned her cap on her head, checked that her empty left sleeve was properly adjusted, smoothed down her jacket and strutted into Ooarai's display. She wanted to let this bunch of amateurs know that a real Panzerkraft team commander had arrived. She was noticed by Saori Takebe, who waved at her in a friendly way.

"Take me to your commander!" Erika barked at her. Startled, Saori wordlessly lead Erika to the rear of the display where Miho Nishizumi was seated.

"What the crap!?" Erika exclaimed.

That girl – that irritating girl – the one who had taken the world of Panzerkraft by storm and stood it on its head, was sitting in front of her.

She looked a wreck!

Miho was dressed in her ordinary Ooarai uniform, rather than the tank-orientated derivative. Something pretty bad must have happened to her since the winning match. Miho had a bandage wrapped round her head and a white gauze eyepatch over her right eye. There were more bandages on her right arm, her left arm was in the sling and there was a white plaster cast stretching from the base of her toes and disappearing somewhere under her pleated green skirt.

"Oh… ah… hey!" Miho said with a surprised smile.

'Why is she so endearingly socially awkward?' Erika pondered.

"Do not tell me you did all this falling off a tank!" Erika snapped at her former Kommandant's younger sister.

"Ah… no…" Miho said in that charmingly annoying voice of hers. "I… I was Boko in a show"

'Boko?' Erika said to herself. Then she remembered. 'Oh, that creepy bear thing!'

Miho continued: "It turns out those Boko suits aren't as padded as I hoped they would be!" She smiled a pleasing smile as if everything was well with the world.

"Poor Miss Nishizumi got quite a kicking!" a voice said.

'Ugh!' Erika jumped. She hadn't noticed a pile of fluffy hair attached to a girl's head and body which was seated on the ground to the side and just slightly behind Miho. Erika recognised Yukari Akiyama.

'Miho's shadow and the world's worst spy' Erika reminded herself.

Erika ignored the fluffy-haired tank nut and concentrated on the disgrace to Panzerkraft that was Miho.

Mako, the Panzer IV driver, spoke up from where she was l lying on a sun lounger, looking like she was asleep. "Perhaps the others in that Boko show were actually the other school commanders getting their own back for Miho winning the Nationals this year" she drawled in her monotone voice.

Erika thought about this. There was something about that idea that she really didn't like and which made her angry.

'No! I should be the only one allowed to give Miho a kicking!'

She noticed everyone looking oddly at her.

'Er… I didn't just say that out loud, did I?' she suddenly wondered.

"Sorry to hear about your accident. Are you OK?!" Miho asked earnestly, breaking the awkward silence.

"I don't need your sympathy!" Erika snapped at her. She forced herself to be civil again. Erika explained her brilliant questionnaire idea and Miho seemed only too glad to help, taking a large stack of them and promising to get every one of her teams to fill them out and send them to the Panzerkraft Federation.

"Hey – do you want to sign my cast?!" Miho asked, gesturing at her plastered leg and handing Erika a large felt tipped pen.

"Sure" Erika answered grudgingly.

'GET… OUT… OF… MY… LIFE… YOU… IRRITATING… EXCUSE… FOR… A… TANK… COMMANDER…' Erika _thought_.

'GET WELL SOON - ERIKA' was what she wrote.

"Aw, and you've signed it with a kiss" said Hana Isuzu, who had wandered up at that moment, having come back from the shooting contest.

"Eh!?" Erika exclaimed, looking down. Sure enough, under her name there was a large black 'X'.

'How the crap did that happen?!' she asked herself worriedly.

Erika was just about to make a hurried exit when Miho spoke up again.

"Maho sends her love! She says she's looking forward to it!"

Erika whirled around to face Miho again.

'The Kommandant?! _Former_ Kommandant, I mean. You spoke to her? And she sent me _her love_?! When did she say this? How did she look? What was she wearing? How did she _smell_ when she said that?' All these questioned zoomed around Erika's head, followed by the one she actually put into words.

"Looking forward to what?"

Miho looked nervously shocked, in that lovable creature-caught-in-headlights sort of way that she did.

"Uh… the three-on-three match? I can't take part, obviously, but Maho is going to step in for me and command the Ooarai team. Er… you did know that, right?!"

Erika stood there, shaking. Her face varied from red to white and then back again faster than a chameleon walking across raspberry ripple ice-cream. She glared at Miho and then strode off without another word.

"Huh, if she didn't know before that she was facing Maho then I guess she does now" Mako said from her reclined position, sounding half asleep.

"It was good of your sister to stand in for you" Hana said to Miho. "Maho does know about the losing forfeit dance, right?"

"HUH!?" Miho suddenly gasped, sitting bolt upright. "I forgot to tell her!" Miho frantically scrabbled to get her mobile phone to text Maho.


	13. Chapter 13

**Andou**

Enraged at what she saw as blatant trickery on the part of Ooarai, Erika was stalking along with her two first year followers struggling to keep up. Not only was she not going to get a chance to put that walking disaster area Miho in her place, but she was now pledged to fight in a battle against her own Kommandant! _Former_ Kommandant, even. But still.

It was highly likely that the next person that Erika encountered would receive the full force of undeserved fury that was currently building up in Erika. It was very unfortunate for Andou Rena that she was that next person.

Erika spotted Andou hobbling along some distance in front of her. True to what Marie has said, Andou was sporting a chunky black fracture boot, held in place with sturdy-looking straps, on her right foot. She was supporting herself with a single aluminium crutch which she had tucked under her opposite arm. She was attired in her BC Freedom uniform which was quite flamboyant, consisting of knee high boots (Andou was only wearing one, of course), a pristine white pleated skirt, a white shirt with a tall collar, a blue top and a short blue jacket with white edging. On her head was a blue kepi with the BC Freedom badge in the centre of the front.

"Can't you stop limping?! You're making us all look ridiculous!" Erika snapped at her as she drew level.

Never one to back down from a fight, Andou stopped and looked at Erika with narrowed eyes.

"Well forgive me for letting the event down…" she said, sardonically "…but I'm limping because my foot FUCKING HURTS!"

Erika was a little taken back by the vehemence of the other girl's words, and the language that she used, but she wasn't going to be spoken to like that.

"Yes; Marie told me about it. Infighting with that Oshida, wasn't it? You and her ought to have it out, once and for all. Mind you, looks like she'd get the better of you for the next month or so, doesn't it?!" she barked, looking down at Andou's strapped up foot. "You French wannabe's are all ways fighting each other. No wonder why everyone is so happy to draw you as an opponent in the tournaments; it's like a free pass into the next round!" Erika jeered.

Andou laughed a mocking laugh. "Well it'll be fun to see how you do in the tournaments Miss One-Arm. Can you even climb onto a tank?!"

Erika snarled. "Kuromorimine's going to win this year; I'm going to make sure of that! Just you watch!"

Andou sneered. "I very much doubt that! You just want to be remembered for something other than having _one_ arm. At least you're doing better than your predecessor, who will only be remembered for having _no_ personality!" Andou was clearly referencing Maho, and this was something Erika couldn't stand for.

"You take that back!" Erika stepped forward until she was up close to the girl in the blue uniform.

"Make me, you bitch! You're nothing but a crappy Maho tribute act!" Andou spat back. She reached up and shoved Erika in the chest, making her recoil a few steps.

Erika saw red. She was enraged with how this girl was speaking to her. The insults about her missing arm hurt, but worst of all was besmirching the name of her adored Maho. If she had been thinking rationally, entering into a fight when she only had one arm was a bit silly, but now that Andou had physically attacked her Erika wasn't going to hold back.

She didn't really think about her actions. The Nishizumi style was deeply engrained in her and carried over from Panzerkraft into other combative areas of her mind. There was no room in that style for soften, weakness, or honourable rules. If she was going to fight, Erika was going to fight hard and fight to win.

Andou was standing close to her, her arms still up from where she had pushed Erika. She still had her single crutch tucked into her left armpit and her fractured foot in her medical fracture boot was slightly in front of her, resting on the ground. Erika didn't hesitate and brought her left boot crashing down on Andou's injured foot.

Andou howled and dropped her crutch which fell to the ground with a clatter. She grabbed her foot tightly in both hands with her face screwed up in pain. Her fancy kepi also fell off and rolled on the ground as she hopped around and hollered in pain.

Erika was about to move in for the kill when her forward movement was suddenly arrested. She felt a hand on her collar that dragged her back and spun her round. Staring her in the face, and looking furious was Oshida, the other vice-commander of BC Freedom Academy. She had one fist raised and seemed about to smash it down into Erika's face.

"Don't you dare hurt my girlfriend!" she screamed at Erika.

Erika braced herself for the blow that was about to fall, wishing her had two arms again with which to defend herself. She yelled back at Oshida. "She had it coming… wait! What?! Your _girlfriend_?! I thought you were the one who broke her foot in the first place?!"

Oshida still had her fist raised but had a look in her eyes as if she'd said something that she really shouldn't have said.

"So… so what if I did?!" she finally stuttered, lowering her fist. "Just… just leave our school alone, OK?!" she yelled. She let go of Erika's collar with a shove and walked over to Andou.

Erika couldn't quite believe what she'd just heard. She want to see what Oshida was going to say to Andou, who was still hopping and moaning, but one of her first year minions was at her side, trying to hurry her away.

"Come on Kommandant – let's go!"

Erika had to agree; they should probably get away from what had just happened. She probably shouldn't have stamped on Andou's broken foot in the first place; Panzerkraft team commanders weren't supposed to get into fights with other vice-commanders. So, with a jerk of her head, Erika quickly trotted off, followed by her two helpers.

Meanwhile, Oshida crossed over to Andou who was holding her foot.

"What the hell happened? Are you OK? What did you say to her?" Oshida asked.

"I called her a one-armed bitch who would never be as good as Maho" Andou replied through gritted teeth.

"That was pretty dumb!" Oshida stated. "You know what she's like about her predecessor! Small wonder she stamped on your foot…" Oshida sighed. "And we almost gave the game away there – we have to be careful! OK…" She sighed again and put an arm around Andou's waist to support her. "Let's go and get some frozen _petit pois_ on that foot of yours…"


	14. Chapter 14

**Pravda**

As she walked away from the disgraceful scene that had just unfolded, Erika looked up at one of the huge visual display boards. The scores of the shooting contest were being shown. It turned out Kay had indeed been right; Naomi had won, closely followed by Ooarai's Hana Isuzu, while Kuromorimine's Ren Maaru had earned a respectable third place. One noticeable absence among the top places was Pravda. Erika searched down the list to find that Pravda was joint last, along with a smaller school that Erika had never heard of. That was surprising. Erika was sure that Pravda would have entered Nonna, the tall brunette who was normally the commander of an IS-2, but was an excellent shot too. And she couldn't believe that Nonna would have done this badly. Something was clearly amiss.

Erika approached the Prava stand. In amongst the menacing green tanks and red flags, their commander, Katyusha, could clearly be seen, towering above everyone else. But that was only because she was sat of the shoulders of… Klara?!

Normally, Katyusha's trusted friend and lieutenant Nonna would be the one to bear Katyusha on her shoulders, but Erika couldn't see her. It was only as she came closer she could see that Nonna was next to her commander and Klara, but was sitting down on a chair.

Wait; that wasn't a chair. Poor Nonna was sitting in a wheelchair!

Erika stalked up the trio.

"Ah, the newly appointed Kommandant Itsumi! Have you come to formally greet the Great Katyusha?!" the pint-sized commander said from her lofty position on Klara's shoulders.

'Yeah, yeah, whatever' Erika said to herself. Anyone who had dealt with Katyusha before got used to her way of speaking to people. The best tactics were to either ignore it or play along with it.

"Good afternoon Katyusha… ladies" Erika bowed slightly.

Nonna and Klara returned her greeting while Katyusha spouted something pompous. Erika pretended to listen but then turned to Nonna.

"What's the matter with you?" she asked. If a colleague was in a wheelchair, it had to be something fairly serious.

"Nonna has been having trouble with her back" Katyusha answered before Nonna could speak. "The doctor has said it has because she has been carrying the Great Katyusha on her shoulders too much, but this cannot be!"

Nonna shook her head, apparently disagreeing with the medical diagnosis and confirming Katyusha's statement.

"Katyusha is as light as the breeze which blows across the Steppe in summer" Nonna said quietly, sounding a bit downcast.

Klara said something in Russian. Erika didn't speak Russian, so couldn't understand what she had said, but thought she knew all the same. Erika had once carried Katyusha on her shoulders and so knew she was far from light! Erika was convinced Klara had said the Russian equivalent of "Not from where I'm standing!"

At least now Pravda's humiliating joint-last place in the shooting competition made sense. Erika spoke up to confirm what she suspected:

"I guess that means you weren't in the shooting competition Nonna?"

Nonna shook her head.

"Nina and Alina took the place of Nonna" Katyusha explained.

"Ah" Erika said.

"They will be punished for their failure!" Katyusha raved. Erika would not have liked to have been in the position of either of those girls for the foreseeable future.

Erika got to the purpose of her visit an explained about her questionnaire. At first, Katyusha was indignant, saying that any suggestion that Pravda's team was unsafe was a slur on her and the good name of Pravda and…

Erika let her rant on. Eventually, Katyusha of course realised that Erika had the good of all the team in mind, and agreed to participate in Erika's scheme. Erika was in the process of offering her thanks when Katyusha interrupted.

"Look; it's starting!" she said, pointing like an excited child to one of the huge display screens. 'It' turned out to be the next competition in the event's packed programme, which was a sort of 'tank obstacle course' with deep ditches, water-filled ravines, slopes, bumps, hills, mud and all other manner of things to overcome.

The little group stood (Nonna sat) and watched the beginning of this spectacle as the tanks' trials were shown on the vast screen. St. Gloriana's Churchill (commanded by Assam) quickly moved into a leading position. The various obstacles seemed to present little difficulty to Ruhuna, Darjeeling's highly skilled driver. Also doing very well was Jatkosota High, using a KV1 which looked suspiciously like it might have been painted in Pravda colours until very recently.

"Ha! There's us! There's us!" Katyusha shouted wildly as a T-44 in Pravda green was shown on the screen.

"Did Kuromorimine enter this event?" Klara asked Erika.

Although Erika was trying to make Kuromorimine more outgoing and popular, they were not participating in everything. Erika had actually been somewhat selective into what events she had put the school forward for, only entering those where they stood a good chance of winning. Old habits died hard it seemed! This, however, was one of those events.

"Yes, we have a Tiger I competing… actually where is it?" Erika answered, focussing on the screen again.

As if on cue, the noise make of a straining engine made her turn round.

Struggling along the wide boulevard between the stands, and with marshals in hi-vis jackets escorting it on foot to keep the pedestrians safe, were not one but two huge 18 ton 'FAMO' halftracks. Normally Erika would have been impressed at this site, but the fact that they were towing a Tiger I painted in Kuromorimine sand yellow enraged her.

"Oh crap!" she yelled. Even if the three Pravda girls were facing away from her and had suddenly become fascinated in the big screen, Erika was of the opinion that they were silently smirking at her.

Three dejected Kuromorimine students were sitting atop the helpless tank as it trundled along and Erika yelled at them over the roar of the engines as they drew level.

"What are you _doing_?!" she raved.

"We're sorry Kommandant!" the tank's commander wailed. "The drive shaft sheered just as we were about to start!"

"Rah!" Erika raged, stamping her foot. "So much for German engineering!"


	15. Chapter 15

**Tarczay**

Despite the efforts of her first year followers who were trying to calm her, Erika did a good deal of ranting and hopping from one foot to the other as the sad sight of the crippled Tiger trundled by. Eventually she settled down, although still looked angry.

"Come on girls" she said, waving a curt goodbye to her Pravda colleagues at the same time. "I'm hungry; let's go and find something to eat."

There were many stands either selling or simply giving away food so there was plenty of choice for the three girls. Erika was at a bit of a loss, however. She didn't want to return to Ooarai and their anglerfish stew; St. Gloriana's fancy sandwiches didn't appeal; nor did BC Freedom's cakes and pastries. She could have gone for a hamburger (one of her favourite things), but having watched Kay wolf one down in about five seconds flat had rather put her off that idea. She also, and this was the point that she was slightly self-conscious of, ideally wanted something she could easily eat with one hand. A bowl of rice or some sort of stew would be ideal (but not anglerfish!).

She began to lead the trio, using her nose for guidance as much as anything, to see what options might be available. She soon caught a delicious smell emanating from a school display with a covered canteen area and a variety of odd looking tanks in olive drab base colour with blotches of ochre and brown, as a hard-edged pattern.

Erika searched her mind to identify the tanks. She had quite an extensive knowledge of such things; maybe not as good as Maho, but very proficient. Nonetheless she had to look hard at them before she worked out what they each were. To one side there was a Zrinyi self-propelled gun mounting a squat, stubby weapon in its block-like frame. It looked a bit like a StuH and Erika recalled that the gun was a similar 105mm howitzer.

The centre tank was a Turán II with a short-barrelled 75mm; rather akin to an early model Panzer IV. The final tank on display was a Toldi IIa light tank, equipped with a 40mm gun in its small turret. If Erika had been a certified tank nut like Yukari Akiyama she would no doubt have been reduced to drooling idiocy, as these were some quite rare tanks that had been produced by Hungary. However, it was a different sort of 'hungry' that was Erika's motive for walking into the encampment.

There was a delicious scent wafting from the canteen area, which had a large banner displaying the name 'TARCZAY HIGH SCHOOL'. Erika dimly recalled that they were a school with a Hungarian-themed Sensha-do team (as confirmed by the tanks on display) but they hadn't participated in Panzerkraft for at least a couple of years.

Erika wandered into the covered area, past long trestle tables and up to the serving counter where customers, mainly girls from other schools, were gathered. They had been chatting to the girls who were dishing up bowls of food, but Erika noticed that the chatter ceased as she approached.

"That smells amazing – what is it?" Erika asked the short girl in green overalls who was stood behind the counter.

"Goulash" she answered with a surly tone and an expressionless face.

"Great – how much for a bowl?" Erika asked, even though she had never heard of goulash before. She was willing to give it a try though, if it tasted anything as good as it smelled.

"Three hundred Yen" came the reply in the same surly monotone.

"I'll have one please" Erika said, trying to sound friendly and wondering why the girl was behaving in the way that she was. "And you guys?" she said, turning to her first year followers. "Yes? And you? No, I'm not paying for it! Buy your own!" she squabbled with them in a whisper.

She turned back to the server to find that the Tarczay girl had inelegantly dumped a portion of the red stew into a bowl and had thrust it at Erika. There was an awkward moment as Erika tried to hand over her money while the green-clad girl continued to hold the bowl out as if she expected Erika to take it simultaneously; seemingly oblivious to the fact that Erika had one empty sleeve pinned up on her chest. Erika managed to pay the girl and took the heavy bowl in her single hand, nearly dropping it as the serving girl released her grip. Erika's followers had their goulash dished up and handed to them with the same level of distain.

"Thanks…" Erika said, not meaning it. Clearly this girl had woken up in a bad mood, or else was fundamentally unsuited for the catering profession. "Come on guys…"

She led her assistants to the end of one of the long wooden tables where they sat down. One of the first years got some spoons from a side table, all the while attracting hostile stared from the Tarczay girls, and the three of them began to eat.

"Mmm! Tastes good!" Erika beamed. She tried to concentrate on her food, but her followers were starting to stare around them uneasily.

"What is it with these girls?" one of them whispered to Erika. "This is really uncomfortable!"

Erika stopped eating and looked around her. There were little knots of the Tarczay girls, gathered in threes or fours, staring at the black-uniformed trio and whispering to themselves. A few of them were openly pointing at the Kuromorimine girls.

"I don't think they like us" Erika commented, somewhat needlessly.

"But why?" one of her first years whined. "Kommandant… you haven't… done anything to this school before, have you?"

"I don't even know them!" Erika snapped at her minion. Whatever was up with the Tarczay girls, Erika was sure she'd done nothing to deserve it. "Let's just eat up and go…"

She was about to return to her half-eaten bowl of goulash when she became aware of a red-haired girl stalking towards them. She was of average height and build and modestly good-looking although nothing remarkable. What did stand out, however, was her scowling expression coupled with her determined stride. She marched right up to where the Kuromorimine students were sitting.

"You are not welcome here!" she yelled haughtily.


	16. Chapter 16

**Tarczay II**

Although shocked by this, Erika was not phased. She looked up from where she was sitting with a small sneer on her face.

"And who are you?" she asked, lazily.

"My name is Paprika!" the redhead said in a shrill tone. "And I say again you are _not welcome here_!"

Erika looked the short girl up and down. "All we want to do is enjoy a peaceful bowl of your delicious goo.. gool... whatever it's called..." she began.

"It's called goulash!" Paprika cut in. "And it's far too good for the likes of Kuromorimine!"

"What is your problem!?" Erika asked this fiery redhead.

"The problem...!" Paprika trilled "... is the way you Kuromorimine students treat this sport; dominating everything; treating the smaller schools like dirt. You think you're so good in your fancy black uniforms; swaggering down here just to rub our noses in it...!" Paprika was becoming quite agitated.

"Wait!" Erika tried to argue in her defence. "We're not rubbing anyone's noses in anything..."

"We all know what you did!" Paprika hissed, becoming menacing. "You and Pravda and Saunders; you let Ooarai win the Nationals. How much did they pay you? What did they offer you in return?!" Paprika was starting to sound hysterical, but Erika was not prepared to let her school and her team be insulted in this fashion. She was in no mood (or physical shape) to get involved in another fight, but this redhead was clearly asking for it. Banging her single fist on the table, she addressed Paprika.

"What evidence do you have to slander Kuromorimine in that fashion!?" she snapped.

She leapt to her feet as she spoke, which caused a gasp from the surrounding Tarczay students. Some of them started to move forward to come to Paprika's aid. Erika's two first year minions, however, were also on their feet. They didn't have as much pride as Erika, but they too were students of Kuromorimine and members of the Panzerkraft team. Like Erika, they were not going to sit idly by while their good name was insulted.

"What's all this?" suddenly came a commanding yet only slightly raised voice. The Tarczay girls parted and a slender girl with a beautiful face and braided ashen hair stepped forth.

"Kuromorimine is here, behaving as you'd expect Commander!" Paprika informed this newcomer.

"What the crap?!" Erika silently mouthed to her followers, as they had done nothing wrong in her view.

"I see..." the ashen-haired girl said quietly before coming forward. "And who have we here?" she asked Erika.

"Erika Itsumi, Kommandant, Kuromorimine Panzerkraft Team" Erika replied stoutly. "And you are...?" she asked, with distain barely disguised in her voice.

"I am called Goulash and I am the Commander of Tarczay" the girl replied with narrowed eyes.

"Your… ah…" Erika waved her arm in a dismissive gesture "...friend… seems to object to our presence here" she finished.

If she had expected any sympathy or solidarity from Goulash then she was sorely mistaken. "As do I!" Goulash said, not as loudly or vehemently but with no less conviction.

Erika felt she'd had enough of this and banged her sole fist down on the wooden trestle table a second time.

"What have we ever done to you?!" she snapped at the Hungarian-themed school's commander.

"You, Pravda, those louts in Saunders, St. Gloriana; you're all a curse to this sport and a stain on its name!" Goulash said. "And as for letting the brats from that upstart school win the Nationals; I assume they at least bribed you? Please tell me your commander didn't do it just because their team was commanded by her little sister?!"

The situation between the Kuromorimine trio and the girls of Tarczay school was already very tense, but Goulash had just made it a whole lot worse. Dragging Maho into it was never going to end well when Erika was involved. She had only just narrowly escaped a physical scrap with Andou over the exact same reason, but that was gone from her mind and Goulash's comments just made Erika see red.

"How _dare_ you insult Maho Nishizumi!?" Erika exploded. Her first year companions braced themselves for the worst. At that moment, however, there was an unexpected interruption.

"Miss Itsumi!" came a voice suddenly from the back of the crowd. "Miss Itsumi!" Erika turned to see a girl in the red coat of St. Gloriana threading her was towards the Kuromorimine trio. She was quite slight, with pale skin and brown hair pin curled in a vintage style. She also had a black beret with a gold badge on her head, which Erika found strange as she didn't recalled St. Gloriana students ever having worn headgear with their uniforms before. Maybe this was some new whim of that tea-obsessed madwoman who was in charge of them. Erika also had a feeling that she had seen this pale-skinned girl before, but she couldn't recall where.

This sudden interruption had nonetheless halted the menacing Tarczay student in their steps; catching them off guard. In the momentary pause as the girls in olive green waited to see what this new development was, the St. Gloriana girl hurried to Erika, talking loudly as she did so.

"My name is Sarah Alexander... um... I mean English Breakfast" the girl said with an English accent. She continued hurriedly. "I have a message for you Miss Itsumi; Darjeeling would like to see you right away - right now!" She took Erika's only arm and began to pull her through the crowd.

Though intent on defending the honour of Kuromorimine in general and Maho Nishizumi in particular, Erika had been wondering how her and her two followers were going to get out of their predicament without a nasty fight on their hands. She was therefore quite happy to acquiesce to English Breakfast's request. She didn't like backing down, far less running away, but on this occasion it was clear that discretion was the better part of valour and that remaining where she was would only have ended very badly.

Unsure how to react, the girls from Tarczay did not try to impede Erika's path as she had her friends headed out the side of the Tarczay camp. It was also possible that they were thinking that they did not want to be the reason for keeping Erika from an urgent meeting with the head of the St. Gloriana team. Even amongst smaller schools, Darjeeling's name and reputation commanded a lot of respect.

"She wants to see me about what?" Erika asked tersely as they hurried and jostled their way past their tormentors.

"Nothing... there isn't any meeting... I just said it to get you out of there" English Breakfast replied in a hushed whisper.

"Oh. Well. Thanks" Erika said.

"You better go and stay away from here" English Breakfast said as the foursome reached a junction in rows of tents and trailers. Erika had to admit that this was a sound tactical policy and did not hesitate in following it.

"Come on girls!" she said to the two first years. "And thanks" she said to English Breakfast, with a curt nod. They then trotted off toward the main aisle of stalls and stands.

Sarah watched them go before turning down the other fork. She had just rounded the corner of a tent when she almost walked into three girls in olive green.

"Where do you think you're going Missy?!" one of them asked.

Sarah was suddenly aware that two more girls were blocking the way she had just come.

"We don't take kindly to girls who gate crash our parties; especially when we had just got some of those Kuromorimine scum right where we wanted them..."

Sarah looked nervously about her as the five Tarczay girls closed in.


	17. Chapter 17

**Leopon**

As Erika and her companions continued to walk through the event they could hear the gunfire which announced that the five-on-five match between Saunders and Pravda was underway. Unfortunately they couldn't see any of the big screens from where they were standing so couldn't see who was winning.

Erika's attention became drawn to a group of girls wearing orange overalls who were standing in a close cluster around something. Erika recognised them as Ooarai's automobile club. She couldn't see what they were doing but it sounded like they were trying to start some sort of engine.

"It's the plug, I think" one said.

"Try now" another chimed in.

Someone pulled a started cord and there was a deep "BURRR!" but no following engine sound.

"Again!" another said. Another pull and another "BURRR!" but still no reward.

"We've got to see what all this is about!" Erika said to her Kuromorimine colleagues before walking over to the petrolheads.

"Hi… and… what the crap is that?!" Erika asked as she approached.

The trio of standing girls; Nakajima, Suzuki and Tsuchiya, turned to face her. They were gathered around the final member of their group, dark-haired Hoshino. Like poor Nonna had been, Hoshino was also sitting in a wheelchair, although unlike Nonna it was more obvious as to why. Both of her lower legs were encased in white plaster casts which even extended under her bare toes. Her toes themselves looked very red and swollen.

Erika was concerned about the wheelchair Hoshino was sitting in. It looked… well… odd. Erika suspected 'heavily modified' was a better term. It was of the usual aluminium frame construction, but had a joystick on one armrest and a series of levers on the other. The thin tyres had been replaced with fat ones with deep treads. Even more worryingly, an exhaust pipe protruded from under Hoshino's seat.

Leopon team were suddenly subdued and wary when Erika spoke to them. They obviously remembered that they had been instrumental in securing victory for Ooarai in the final of the 63rd Tournament. It had been their Tiger (P) which had blocked the entrance into the plaza where Maho and Miho had duelled, preventing Erika and the rest of Kuromorimine from coming to assist their Kommandant.

Erika was a little put out at this reception; after all, had they and her not worked as a team, along with that little gremlin Katyusha, in the major battle against the university team not so long ago? Then Erika realised that they were probably waiting to see how she treated them; she recalled that she did have a reputation for being a bit of a bitch at times…

"Hey girls" she said again, trying to make sure she sounded as smiley and friendly as possible. "How are you all doing? How's that Porsche Tiger?"

The four motornuts started to relax a bit and replied with the usual pleasantries about how they were fine – all except Hoshino, of course, who obviously wasn't fine. Finally Erika could restrain her curiosity no longer.

"So, what happened you to and WHAT is that wheelchair?!" she asked the seated girl.

Hoshino made a grimace. "The Tiger's road wheels are really heavy. We were changing them over and… one of them rolled over both of my feet!"

Erika grimaced and rolled her eyes. "Safety is very important you know!" she said insistently. "This sport is facing calls for it to be closed down because some people say it's unsafe - which it isn't!"

"Oh, we know it's a safe sport" Tsuchiya said airily. "Taking part in battles is ten times safer than repairing the tanks afterwards!"

"A hundred times safer!" Nakajima offered with a smile.

Erika brightened up at this suggestion. "You think so? I am sure the Federation would be very grateful to hear that, especially from pros such as yourselves."

It was true that the Ooarai Automotive Club were held in very high regard within the world of Panzerkraft. Kuromorimine, for example, employed several workshops, dozens of mechanics and several mobile repair teams in order their keep their fleet of tanks mobile and fully working. Ooarai, on the other hand, seemed to achieve the same result using just four enthusiastic schoolgirls.

Erika explained her questionnaire idea and the four autonuts were happy to oblige.

"Not that repairing tanks is unsafe, you understand!" Suzuki piped up.

"Unless a Tiger's road wheel rolls over both your feet!" Hoshino grumbled from her wheelchair.

"_You_ rolled it over both your feet you mean!" Tsuchiya teased.

"You guys were supposed to be helping!" Hoshnio moaned. Erika could see this was a potentially sore subject (in more ways than one!) so she decided to change it.

"So… this wheelchair…" she began. Hoshino seemed to brighten up.

"We're motorising it!" she explained.

"With an engine from a lawnmower!" Suzuki chimed in.

"But… there are some teething problems" Nakajima said, scratching her head as she looked down at the engine.

"Hmm… good luck with that" Erika said dubiously. She was convinced that, whatever the arguments for or against how safe Panzerkraft might be, it was certainly safer that motorised wheelchairs!

Despite their somewhat crazy ideas regarding modified healthcare products, Erika did actually like and respect the Ooarai mechanics; or Leopon Team as they liked to call themselves. She mused that they would even be a good addition to Kuromorimine.

"We should meet up some time when our school carriers are in the same port. We could go shopping or something?" she suggested. The Leopon girls thanked her for the offer and seemed quite keen on the idea. The group chatted amicably for a while longer and parted on friendly terms.

A tannoy system blared out "All Pravda tanks are immobilised. Victory goes to Saunders High School!". Erika was able to catch a glimpse of one of the large screens as she walked along. Saunders had won but only had one of their own tanks remaining so it couldn't have been an easy victory. It was also probably helped by the fact that Praveda had not fielded a single heavy tank against Kay's Shermans. For a megalomanic, power-crazed little imp, Katyusha could be surprisingly sporting at times.


	18. Chapter 18

**Anzio**

Anzio High was putting on a good display, despite the school's relative lack of money. There was a huge catering stall selling pizza and pasta, which was situated next to their pride and joy; the P40. No one could tell that the large green tank had been dragged there, as it wasn't actually working at the moment. Behind the Anzio stalls, an expansive 'obstacle course' had been sculpted out of earth. Here (for a fee) several CV33s were driving visitors at speed over the bumps, dips and puddles.

Standing atop the P40, in full theatrical flow, was Anchovy; commander of Anzio's Panzerkraft team. As Erika approached, however, she noticed something about Anchovy that had before been partially obscured by her ridiculous pigtails.

'Is it a wig?' Erika pondered, looking an Anchovy's ludicrous hair.

Erika approached and called up to her opposite number.

"What the crap happened to you?!" Erika asked.

Anchovy raised a hand in acknowledgment to Erika. Seeing that very few people were listening to her spirited talk about why Anzio High were so great, she climbed awkwardly and stiffly off the tank to speak to Erika. It was a slow process as she couldn't move her head due to a large plastic neck brace that she was wearing,

Erika repeated her greeting question when Anchovy was face to face with her.

"What does it look like?!" Anchovy replied, swishing her riding crop in annoyance. "I hurt my neck! And I was sorry to hear about your accident too."

"Your neck injury wasn't Panzerkraft-related, was it?!" Erika snapped. The last thing she needed was this theatrical fool messing up her 'Panzerkraft: A Safe Sport' image.

"No, during soccer practice *. Anzio is very strong at soccer – does your school play? We should have a match sometime – ow!" Anchovy yelped as her extravagant gestures became too much for her sore neck.

"Maybe some other time – I'm here to talk about Panzerkraft. We need to ensure that we're all _safe_. I take it all Anzio's matches and practices are perfectly safe?" She emphasized the point; there was no telling with this bunch of fools.

"Of course! Anzio is the safest!" Anchovy expostulated. "I mean, we crash a lot of the time…" she went on. Erika grimaced. "…but we're always fine! I've never known of any injuries!"

"Great" Erika said, relieved. She explained her safety questionnaire idea and Anchovy agreed to participate.

"Let's talk about it over a plate of pasta! Hey! Pepperoni! Carpaccio!" Anchovy yelled.

Her two vice-commanders, wearing aprons and covered in pasta sauce stains, scurried over.

"Get a plate of Anzio's special pasta for our friend here!" Anchovy instructed.

"No… I'm fine… really…" Erika protested.

"It's our speciality; our secret recipe!" Pepperoni informed her. "And you can eat it one-handed…"

Erika glared at her.

"Er… as I found out myself!" Pepperoni squirmed. She held up a heavily bandaged hand. "I burned myself on the pizza oven!"

"Cooking is dangerous then?" Erika asked.

"It can be! But Anzio are strong! We're the best at cooking!" Anchovy ranted.

"I cut my finger while chopping the vegetables" Carpaccio said mournfully, looking down at her bandaged digit.

"Silence!" Anchovy ordered.

* See "Nice Save" 4 koma


	19. Chapter 19

**Shamrock**

Anzio school took the last of Erika's questionnaires, so she dismissed her two first year companions, whose job it had been to carry the stack of forms, and told them to go back to the Kuromorimine stand.

Erika decided to see some more of the other stands before she went back, so wandered through one of the quieter areas of the event. Some of the smaller schools were gathered her, each with their own little display. Erika sighed. Ever since Miho had led an obscure school to victory, every minor school in existence seemed to be trying to start or revive their Sensha-do teams, filled with the belief that they could do exactly what Miho had done. Whilst Erika admired their enthusiasm… well… there were going to be a lot of disappointed schools, she felt.

One very likely candidate for disappointment was Shamrock School for Girls, whose stand Erika happened to be passing now.

"Miss Itsumi!" a voice hailed her.

Erika looked around and saw a redheaded, freckle-faced girl hurrying towards her.

"Yes? Do I know you?" Erika greeted her, a trifle coldly.

"Um… no Miss Itsumi, but I know you. We all do. We're big fans of you and Kuromorimine. Please will you come and look at our tanks!?" the redhead said.

Although unwanted and slightly annoying, there was something endearing about the girl's enthusiasm and Erika agreed to spend a few minutes with them.

"I'm Shannon; commander of the Shamrock School for Girls team" the girl introduced herself. "We only formed the team recently, but we're really keen and we're even going to go in for the qualifying events for the next Nationals!" she said with price.

"Good luck!" Erika said. 'No hope!' she thought to herself.

Shannon wore what was presumably the teams' uniform which consisted of a dark green jacket with a closed black collar and black cuffs, similar in style to St. Gloriana's, with black boots and an emerald green pleated skirt. On top of Shannon's head was a hat like an enlarged beret, in the same dark green as her jacket, and with a rather ludicrous emerald green feathered plume attached to the front.

"This is Clare, my Vice-Commander" Shannon said, introducing Erika to a taller, slender girl who also had red hair and freckles. "She commands one of our L-60s."

Shannon pointed to one of two identical low tanks with small turrets. They were painted dark grey with a bright green shamrock badge on the side and another on the turret.

'Completely useless' was Erika's professional opinion, but she kept it within her head.

"The other is commanded by Erne; she's over there with her sister Annalee" Shannon continued. Erika noticed that all the team members that she's seen so far had red hair.

"This is our main tank… a Vickers Mark D!" Shannon led Erika across their small display to where her obvious pride and joy stood. It was a slab-sided, ugly-looking tank with machine guns protruding from it at various angles. They team had painted this one dark green, again with shamrock badges on the side and turret.

'What an utter heap of crap' Erika said, but again only to herself.

"You know there are… other tournaments, which might suit your tanks' er… particular traits. Have you ever heard of Tankathon?" Erika asked. It would be best to keep these amateurs out of Panzerkraft, both for the sake of the sport and themselves.

'You're no Miho – go and play in the kids sport and leave the serious stuff to the big girls' Erika mentally told the commander of this new team.

"Perhaps… Perhaps Kuromorimine would have a friendly against us one day?" Shannon asked, not listening to Erika and really pushing her luck.

"Hmm… perhaps…" Erika was non-committal, as their really wouldn't be any point. Kuromorimine would gain nothing from it, and being defeated in thirty seconds would probably irrevocably damage Shamrock School's morale. But… if these loons insisted on being annihilated…

"I'll speak to my Vice-Kommandant about it" she said with a dismissive wave of her single arm. 'I suppose it would give our C Team something to shoot at' she considered.

Shannon seemed to think this was a definite agreement and was ecstatic. "Oh, thank you, thank you!" she chirped.

"I have to be going; got to get ready for the match!" Erika said to excuse herself.

"Oh, Miss Itsumi… can I have you autograph?" Shannon pleaded.

Erika was quite taken aback by this. That had never happened before. 'Oh well, why not? What harm can it do?' she told herself, and obligingly signed the book then Shannon held out for her.

"Um… Miss Itsumi… is there any chance you would be able to get me Maho Nishizumi's autograph?" Shannon asked with a blush.

"I'll… see what I can do" Erika said, mentally filing the request in her brain under 'B' for 'Bin'.

'Clear off you little leprechaun; Maho's mine and mine only!' she quietly said to herself she as walked off.


	20. Chapter 20

**Orange Pekoe**

So as not to be ambushed by any other teams from schools that no one had ever heard of, Erika left the main thoroughfare and ducked behind some of the tents until she could walk behind some of the spectator stands back towards Kuromorimine.

She was almost at her destination when she saw a familiar figure. The blue jersey marked her out as a member of St. Gloriana Girls' College, while the small stature and braided ginger hair instantly identified her as Orange Pekoe.

She was sitting alone behind the scaffolding one of the seating tiers, hunched and dejected with her head in her hands.

She looked up as Erika approached. Clearly, she had not been expecting anyone to come past her.

Erika had been contemplating walking straight on, ignoring her and returning to Kuromorimine's display, but now that Orange Pekoe had looked at her that would be awkward. There was also something about Orange Pekoe's expression that tugged at Erika's heart, somewhat surprisingly. It was clear that Orange Pekoe had been crying.

Erika slowed and stopped in front of Orange Pekoe. "What's the matter?" she asked. She didn't want to put it as bluntly as that, but couldn't think of how else to phrase her question. Caring for emotional girls wasn't one of her strong points.

"Miss Darjeeling…" Orange Pekoe said mournfully. Erika braced herself. She felt she was about to get the whole story, whether she wanted it or not.

"We used to be so close" Orange Pekoe said with a sob. "Now it's like… she doesn't care about me."

Erika sighed and checked her watch when Orange Pekoe was looking at the ground. She had a few minutes she could spare before she needed to be back to marshal her team for the upcoming battle with Ooarai. She sat down next to Orange Pekoe.

"But you care for her, don't you?" she asked gently.

"Yes" Orange Pekoe whispered.

Erika sighed. "I know what it's like to admire someone who doesn't return it in the same way" she said.

"How do you know" Orange Pekoe wailed.

Erika rolled her eyes, careful of what she said. "Trust me… I know. And I'm probably not the best person to help you with this; it's not exactly my area of expertise, you know?"

Orange Pekoe was silently toying with the end of one of her braids that had come undone.

"How about you just… talk to her?" Erika ventured. Wasn't that what people did (or were supposed to do) in these situations?

"Oh… we talk. But it's not the same. Now it seems we just talk about tea, or tanks or tactics, or… well, that's about it actually!"

Erika digested this. To be honest, she didn't really have a solution for Orange Pekoe and was rather wishing she wasn't getting dragged into this.

"Well… she likes those things, doesn't she, so it's only natural that she wants to talk about them" Erika floundered. Orange Pekoe sniffled.

"What else does she like?" Erika ventured. 'And if you say 'scones' Pekoe, I am going to make you eat that hair braid of yours…' she said in her mind.

"Um… she used to like massages, and I used to like giving them to her, until I got a bit carried away…" Orange Pekoe started sobbing again.

"Yes, yes… anything else?" Erika asked. Time was ticking; she needed to get back soon.

"She likes roses. They're her favourite flower" Orange Pekoe said in a dejected voice.

"Well, there you are then!" Erika said with a positive note in her voice. "Give her some roses, or get her a gift that has something to do with roses. I'm sure she'll love it!" Erika stood up to indicate that her free advice to Orange Pekoe was coming to an end.

"Hmm…" Orange Pekoe said with a forlorn shrug of her shoulders.

"Look…" Erika said, crouching down again. She want to get back to her team mates but couldn't quite leave Orange Pekoe in this state. "I know it was your massage that cracked both her shoulders, and so… um… yes, technically some would say that's your fault…" Erika felt that this wasn't coming out how she had intended. "But… but!" she hastily added as Orange Pekoe began to wail again. "But… I'm sure she knows it was an accident; that you didn't mean to do it; and that you still care about her. Maybe she's nervous of how to approach you; did you think of that? So get her some flowers and try to do something together with her, alright?!" She eventually secured the smallest of nods from Orange Pekoe, which seemed good enough for her. She glanced down at her watch.

"Oh crap; I'm running late. I need to go. Good luck!" she called to Orange Pekoe as she trotted of at a brisk jog toward the Kuromorimine encampment.


	21. Chapter 21

**Battle**

The three-on-three against Ooarai was undoubtedly the highlight of the day's events and Erika had been looking forward to it, in order to make good on her promise that Kuromorimine would win against Miho next time they met. Now, however, she was dreading it, knowing that she would actually be facing a team led by her beloved idol, Maho.

She still had no idea which of Ooarai's tanks she would be facing. She guessed it would be the Panzer IV if Miho had been commanding; but would Maho make the same choice? The fact that Ooarai hadn't entered Leopon team in the speed race, despite it being crewed by their automotive club, suggested to her that they were saving the tank for the battle. The Porsche Tiger was notoriously unreliable and having it compete in the race may have broken it. Still, it could just be a coincidence, or an elaborate ruse…?

For her own line up, she had her favourite Königstiger, or Tiger II as other schools called it. It was heavy and hard-hitting. She had wondered how she'd feel about getting back in it; after all, this was where her tragic accident had occurred. She'd been pleasantly surprised to not feel any fear when she tried it – in fact the opposite was true. She felt at home here.

Joining her would be her fuzzy-headed Vice-Kommandant, Koume, in a Panther, which allowed for a bit more speed and mobility on her team, without compromising firepower. The long 75mm main gun on the Panther was more than capable of taking on most of what Ooarai had to offer.

Her final choice was a Jagdpanzer IV which was perfectly suited for an ambush role. She had given command of this to Bauer, a round-faced, pink-haired girl who was distinguishable by the medical eye patch that she wore ("I don't know why you wear that – you've got two eyes!" Erika had snapped at her earlier that day).

Now the three tanks were assembled at the start line for her team and she was walking over to where the judges stood, and where she would greet and bow to the opposing commander. Maho!

The umpire in charge was Ami Chouno, who Erika remembered from earlier. She was already standing waiting when Erika joined her. Erika felt the older woman's eyes on her; was there something disapproving in that look? Did she have something against one-armed girls still practicing Panzerkraft? Or maybe she just didn't like Kuromorimine, or Erika personally? Or maybe Erika was imagining the whole thing. She was feeling a bit paranoid at the moment.

Soon, an instantly recognisable figure came striding over. The Kommandant! _Former_ Kommandant, Erika told herself, but she still felt weak at the knees. Maho was wearing an unusual outfit consisting of the blue-grey Ooarai tank jacket worn over her crimson Kuromorimine shirt and skirt. It was clearly Miho's jacket that Maho had borrowed, and it didn't completely fit Maho. One button was undone where it was too tight across Maho's ample chest, but Erika was in too much of a terrified state to notice that detail.

Previously, albeit very, _very_ recently, Erika had thought that she had detected traces of a smile when she and the Kommandant, _former_ Kommandant even, had met. There was none of that now. This was Maho geared up and ready to win. The stern face, the impassive cold eyes; they struck terror into Erika's heart. This _was_ power itself. She was the living embodiment of the Nishizumi style. How could Erika ever possibly hope to win against her!?

Erika barely heard the referee's command to bow and to wish her opponent luck. She mumbled something appropriate before making her way back to her team. Maho's icy composure had completely unnerved her so that by the time she arrived at her own tanks she was white-faced and sweating, with her single hand opening and clenching uselessly at her side.

She stopped in front of her Königstiger, unsure what to do. She could feel the eyes of her team on her, but her throat was dry and she couldn't speak.

"What are you orders?" Koume asked, standing at the head of the expectant group of girls in their black jackets.

"Ah… uh…" Erika stammered, that vision of Maho in an Ooarai jacket clouding her mind. "The… the Kommandant…"

CRACK!

Ow. That hurt.

Someone had just slapped her hard on the cheek, and that person was still standing in front of her. Koume. But a new and strange looking Koume. This Koume had a look of fierce determination and the light of battle in her eyes.

"_You're_ the Kommandant! Now tell us what we need to do to _win_!" Koume shouted at her.

Snapped out of her funk by the blow to her cheek (which really hurt, by the way!) Erika was suddenly back in the correct mind set for Panzerkraft. She saw the looks in the faces of all the crew around her, and felt a surge of hope. Victory _was_ possible! And with this team, they would do it!

"Mount!" she bellowed. The crews bolted like hares to their respective tanks and swarmed aboard. As quick as she could with only one arm, Erika scrambled up onto the turret of her huge Königstiger and dropped into the commander's cupola. She waited, tensely, for the signal flare that would begin the match.

There it was, soaring skywards to burst in the heavens with a loud 'boom'.

"Panzer… MARSCH!"


	22. Chapter 22

"Panzer… MARSCH!"

With a thunder of Maybach engines the three tanks moved out.

The area chosen for the match was undulating, with a block of woods stretching away on her left, a reasonably open centre, while on the right there were copses of trees, before the ground sloped up to a wooded hill. Her strategy, which the other crews had already been briefed on, was for Koume to probe forward on her left, going to the far side of the woods. Bauer, meanwhile, would push forward on the right, with the intention of setting up an ambush position in the copse of trees. Erika would advance cautiously in the centre until the enemy whereabouts were known.

This strategy, of course, meant that the three tanks would soon be out of sight of each other. This was not the traditional Kuromorimine way, which relied heavily on maintaining tight formations. They had seen, however, the weakness of that during the final of the National Tournament, so Erika had been working hard to get her tanks to operate more independently. This would be a test of that training.

"Panther advancing – no enemy in sight" Koume's tank broadcast over the radio.

"Jagdpanzer here – there's nothing to our front yet" came the report from the right flank.

Erika had expected Ooarai's tanks to be spread out and operating independently as was Miho's style. With Miho out of the game and her sister in command, however, Erika's thoughts were in confusion. Who had made the plan for this battle? Would Maho alter her style to suit Ooarai or the other way round?

Bauer's radio operator's voice came over the airwaves: "Jagdpanzer has reached the clump of at 4503. Do we wait in ambush here or probe further?"

"Tell them to watch and wait and be ready for anything" Erika ordered, feeling uneasy now that she had no clear idea of what her opponent might be up to. "Continue with caution" she instructed her own driver. "The enemy tanks could be spread out or they could be…"

"Tanks to out front!" her gunner, Ren Maaru, yelled, cutting Erika off in mid-sentence. "One… two… I see three tanks! It's their whole force!"

Erika leapt to her feet to be able to see out of the commander's hatch. With difficulty, she put her binoculars to her eyes, which meant she wasn't able to hold on to anything in the rocking, lumbering tank. Nevertheless, by bracing her legs she was able to steady herself and observe the formation to their front. Sure enough, barrelling towards them was a tight V-shaped wedge of armour. The Tiger (P) was on the side closest to the woods; the brown Panzer IV formed the centre and the StuG III was on the right. Floating on an aerial above the Panzer IV Erika could just make out the small pennant that identified it as the opposing flag tank.

"Oh crap!" Erika couldn't help but audiably mutter as this armoured spearhead bore down on her. Almost at once, flashes followed by loud cracks announced that Ooarai was firing. At her! Erika rapidly ducked back inside the turret. 'Maybe I'm just being over-cautious' she thought, but she didn't want a repeat of what had happened to her previously.

"Driver reverse! Gunner - open fire!" she shouted to her crew as she clattered ungracefully down into the commander's seat. She gave quick instructions to her radio operator: "Tell Koume to get to this side of the woods to support us! Bauer to hold her fire until they are level with her, then to fire at will!"

The message was swiftly relayed as the Königstiger fell back from the full Nishizumi onslaught.

"Koume has spotted a path through the woods; she says she'll use it to make her way towards our position!" the radio operation yelled to Erika over the din.

"Good! She'll hopefully emerge on their flank!" Erika said almost to herself. "Tell her to hurry up!" Erika said more loudly so the radio operator could hear the instruction.

Almost as soon as the radio operator had finished speaking there was another flat CRACK from in front of the Königstiger followed by a deeper BANG. Bauer's Jagdpanzer had fired from its concealed position and hit the StuG III squarely in its side. The hit had been a critical one as the StuG had come to an immediate halt with its engine smoking and white flag flying.

"Yeah! Good shot!" Erika exclaimed as the Königstiger's own gun roared in reply to another salvo from Ooarai, with dust and dirt being kicked up all around. Her tank was still slowly weaving as it fell back, but as she looked she saw another shot from the Jagdpanzer take off the front mudguard of the Panzer IV, missing its front tracks by inches. The tank stopped and reversed back at a slight angle to put the knocked out StuG between itself and the threat on its flank. Erika realised that the Anglerfish Team were now effectively pinned down by Bauer's sniping tank destroyer.

"Tell Bauer to keep her eyes - both eyes! - on their flag tank and to stop it from breaking cover. Where the crap is Koume? We'll deal with that fake Tiger… what the crap!?" Erika's last explosion was a reaction to the Tiger (P) suddenly rearing up slightly, like a horse that someone had just put the spurs to. With flame emanating from the exhaust pipes it charged forward in a wide arc to Erika's left. It was clearly looking to curve round and hit her Königstiger in its more lightly armoured flank.

"Driver reverse, left hand down!" Erika ordered, turning the heavy tank so the front swung to the left to meet this new threat, conscious that even as she did so she was exposing her right side to long range fire from the pinned down but still very dangerous Panzer IV. "Engage the Tiger" Erika ordered Ren, her gunner. Ren didn't need to be told twice and snapped off a shot at the speeding grey monster which narrowly missed. A return shot from the Ooarai tank went far too high, presumably because the speed it was travelling at rendered it an unstable platform for gunnery.

A BOOM of a shell impacting just to the right of Erika's tank made her ears ring and the tank clattered as lumps of stone and earth showered over it. She realised the Anglerfish Team had taken a ranged shot at her vulnerable right flank now that she was turned to face Leopon team.


	23. Chapter 23

"Damn it!" Erika swore. As Leopon team had come racing down the side of the woods to Erika's left she had turned her tank to keep the strong frontal armour pointed at the Tiger (P). This, however, meant she had inadvertently presented her flank to Anglerfish Team. Although the Panzer IV was effectively pinned down by Bauer's sniping tank destroyer, and compelled to hide behind the knocked out Hippo Team for protection, this didn't mean it wasn't a threat. It was currently trying to engage Erika's tank from without moving from its place of safety. Her Königstiger was heavily armoured, but the sides were weaker than the front and potentially vulnerable.

Her tank continued to swerve and manoeuvre as it fired once again at Leopon team and dodged their incoming fire in return.

"Where the Hell is Koume?" Erika yelled. "She should be here by now!"

Her radio operator already had news in that regard, it seemed. "They're lost in the woods Kommandant!" she shouted up to Erika. "The path they found didn't go where they expected, and the woods are really disorientating. They tried using a compass but…"

"Those idiots! A compass!? A tank is a massive iron box! A compass won't work inside a tank!" Erika raged.

Any reply from the radio operator was cut off by a loud metallic CLANG as a shell struck a glancing blow on the turret and ricocheted off. The deadly flower arranger in the gunner's seat of the Panzer IV had nearly done for them that time. This was getting too hot for comfort as the Königstiger was effectively fighting two enemy tanks at right angles. What Erika needed, was to protect her tank in all directions.

Protect her tank in all directions…

Spinning in the commander's chair, Erika looked out of the rear viewport in the cupola. She had remembered the broad gully that crossed the rear of the battlefield, winding its way forward and to the right towards where Bauer was hidden.

"Driver – reverse! Left hand down!" she ordered, and the Königstiger roared backwards.

"Kommandant… where are we… WAH!" the driver wailed as the heavy tank arrived at and then careered down the slope of the gully. There was one terrifying moment as the slope made it tip up at the front, exposing the weak underside to Leopon Team, but fortunately they had not been expecting this and were unable to get a shot off in time.

Erika had opened the commander's hatch in a flash and hauled herself up into the commander's cupola.

"Don't stop – right hand down… steady… left hand down… steady…" she began directing her driver, making the tank snake backward through the soft sand at the bottom of the gully, while the transmission made complaining noises.

"Kommandant, I can't see where we're going!" her driver protested.

"Just do as I tell you!" she instructed as she guided the tank in reverse along the gully, which meant she was moving to the right of the battlefield and at the same time forward towards Bauer and Anglerfish. She wasn't sure where Leopon's tank was, but standing up as much as she dared on the commander's seat she was finally able to spot the very top of its grey turret. It was probing forward at slow speed towards the point where the Königstiger had disappeared down the slope. Erika wasn't sure if the crew were just being cautious, or if their high-speed nonsense earlier on had done something undesirable to the temperamental tank's internal workings. Either way, it suited her perfectly and she grinned an alligator-like grin.

"Driver – halt! Now forwards and right; I want us to climb the slope. Gunner, traverse left, maximum depression! We're going to hit that fake Tiger before it knows we're out of this ditch!"

"Aw, not easy… not easy…" Erika could hear her driver mumble as the heavy tank juddered and shuddered its way out of the dried up stream bed that it had been hidden in. With the gun depressed to its lowest possible elevation, the muzzle brake cleared the lip of the gully as the tank struggled up. The long 88mm was pointed straight at the Tiger (P). Erika was still standing in the turret and the gunner had her eye glued to the optics.

"On!" she yelled.

"FIRE!" Erika barked.

There was a spurt of flame from the mighty weapon and the shell hurtled towards the unfortunately Tiger (P), hitting it squarely in the side of its engine compartment. The tank's on-board computer registered a critical hit; black smoke erupted from the engine, the main gun sagged in a gesture of defeat and the white flag popped over the stricken vehicle.

"Ha! Got you!" Erika smirked as the Königstiger lumbered out of the gully. With Ooarai's only heavy tank out of the picture, Erika could turn her attention to the pinned down Panzer IV. And when Koume finally got herself un-lost, it would be three-against-one. Erika turned to her right to look down the centre section of the battlefield towards the Panzer IV to see how best to tackle it, when all of a sudden several things happened in quick succession.

The Panzer IV shot forward as if it was suddenly about to break out from the shelter of the knocked out StuG III and make a run for it. Bauer's gunner took aim and fired, but the Panzer IV had slammed its brakes on and was already in reverse when the shot whipped past the front of the tank. Roaring backwards, it stopped again as it emerged on the other side of the protective StuG III. As Bauer's Jagdpanzer struggled to reload for another shot, Hana Isuzu put a perfectly aimed round into the tank destroyer's mantlet. The low vehicle was jolted back by the impact and its white flag instantly popped out. The Ooarai tank had already charged off in a cloud of dust, moving at speed away from its recent kill and towards the forest.

"Ah! Sorry Kommandant; we're out!" Bauer whined to Erika on the radio which she had apparently taken from her operator.

"Damn it!" Erika cursed, slamming her only fist down on the lip of the cupola. "Driver – advance! We need to…"

"It's Koume!" her radio operator shouted. "She's nearly out of the forest!"

"Good, we'll…. Oh crap!" Erika said. She could see the dust cloud from the Panzer IV as it tore round in an arc from where it had been trapped next to the StuG III. It arrived at the edge of the dense woodblock and began to follow the edge of the wood. With a sick sense of certainty, Erika just knew what was about to happen.

Some bushes on the periphery of the woodland swished and swayed and the sand-yellow bow of a Panther nosed its way out of the shrubbery.

"Hey Kommandant! We're so sorry we got lost but we're here now…" Koume was shouting as the Kuromorimine tank emerged – straight in front of the Panzer IV which was now patiently waiting as if Maho had known exactly where Koume's tank would appear. The rest of Koume's apology was cut off as Anglerfish Team fired point blank into the side of the hapless Panther, knocking it out instantly. Almost before the white flag was flying, the sleepy genius at the controls of the Panzer IV had skirted round their latest victim and was driving straight for Erika's Königstiger.

Trying to suppress the shock of seeing her three-against-one advantage slashed to one-on-one in a matter of moments, Erika ordered her tank forwards and for her gunner to open fire. She took comfort from the fact that she was in a vastly superior tank, but then, she was facing the great Maho Nishizumi herself. As the two tanks engaged like a pair of heavyweight boxers, Erika couldn't help but wonder if her tank's thicker armour and heavier gun would be enough to win this fight.


	24. Chapter 24

The battle soon developed into one of ferocious intensity. The two flag tanks circled each other like prowling wildcats, each trying to get in a deadly blow. The fact that the Ooarai tank only mounted a 75mm gun made little difference at the close ranges they were firing over, especially if they managed to hit anything other than the Kuromorimine tank's strong frontal armour. Erika's poor overworked driver did her best to try to keep the Panzer IV to their front where the Königstiger's sloped heavy steel would afford them the most protection, but the brown medium tank seemed to be able to dart and swerve wherever it wanted to.

Erika felt a rising doubt that she wasn't going to be able to keep pace with the gifted heiress to the Nishizumi style. Her Königstiger felt like an ungainly elephant trying to hold its own in a macabre dance of death with a highly trained ballerina. Already two shots had ricocheted off her tank's sloping hull armour and a third had scrapped down the side of the turret in what could have been a knockout hit if only it had been a few inches further to the right. Ren Maaru, Erika's skilled gunner, was doing her level best to score a hit on Ooarai's flag tank but every time she had it in her sights it seemed to twist out of the way before the shot could hit home.

The crowd were enthralled at the furious duel that was unfolding. It had only been going on for a matter of minutes, but to those taking part it already felt like hours. Everyone in Erika's tank was feeling the strain. The driver, wrestling with the heavy controls and pedals and with the added burden of having to try to second guess the opposing tank's movements, was close to exhaustion. Ren was tight-lipped and silent and as she tried again and again to win the match for them with a killer shot. The loader, a burly third year, was stronger than most of the other girls on the team but was already drenched in sweat from the exertion of heaving the heavy shells out of the racks and ramming them home into the breach. And those shells themselves were rapidly running out!

Erika's heart was pounding in her chest as she did her best to direct and encourage her crew, spurring them on to even greater efforts. She even gasped out loud as another shot whipped past the commander's cupola. Then her own tank's shot, fired fractions of a second later, missed the Panzer's turret by millimetres and kicked up a plume of dirt some distance beyond.

Suddenly, Erika saw the front of the Panzer IV move in a way that triggered some sort of sixth sense reaction in her.

"She's gonna drift!" she bellowed above the din of the fighting compartment. Erika remembered only too well the manoeuvre that Miho, or more exactly her ace driver Mako, had performed in the final of the Nationals against Maho's Tiger I. Erika guessed that Maho, now in command of that formidable team herself, and no doubt with her own supply of shells dwindling, had decided to try the same tactic here.

"Pivot turn! Neutral steer right!" Erika yelled. She just had time to bark her first order before the Panzer IV came roaring in.

"The transmission won't stand it!" her driver complained but was already putting the turn into effect as the words left her mouth.

The crowd gave a collective "Ooooh!" as the brown Panzer IV charged in, using its momentum to go into a skid on the compacted hard earth.

"Keep them at lunch time!" Erika yelled, using the slang term for the Königstiger's 1:30 clock position, where the angle of the sloping armour gave it the maximum protection.

The aerial drone cameras beamed the climactic spectacle on to the big screens for the crowd, all of whom were on the edge of their seat. The Panzer IV drifted round in a huge arc, shedding track links and road wheels as it went; the intention being for the tank to finish up directly behind their target and at point blank range. Doubtless many of the fans would recall how this ploy had played out for Ooarai in the National's final against Kuromorimine.

This time, there was a difference, however. As Anglerfish team skidded in a cloud of dust and sparks, the mighty Königstiger rotated on its own axis, its gears howling in protest as it did so. The front right corner of the tank, with the fearsome long 88mm directly above it, kept pace with the Ooarai tank as it traversed. With an end to the screaming of tortured metal, the Panzer IV and the Königstiger both came to a halt at the end of an almighty skid trail, with the two tanks' main barrels pointing directly at each other. The wrecked and battered Panzer IV stared forlornly at the front right quarter of the Königstiger.

There was half a heart-beat of pure silence as everyone held their collective breath. Erika could almost see through the layers of carbon and steel into the cupola of the opposing tank. She could see Maho's face. A face etched with the knowledge that she had risked everything on this final manoeuvre, and that she had lost.

"Fire" both commanders whispered simultaneously. The 75mm shot from Anglerfish hit the Königstiger's sloped upper glacis plate and screeched off into the distance. The 88mm shell caught the Panzer IV on the gun mantlet, which at this extreme close range caused the crippled tank to lurch backwards a few inches. At once, the engine belched smoke, the gun barrel sagged, and the little white flag popped from its container.

Feeling like she suddenly needed to sleep for a week, Erika slumped down into her seat and let out a huge sigh while the rest of her crew did the exact same thing.


	25. Chapter 25

After the silence of their exhaustion had dragged on just a little too long, Erika stirred.

"Um… I guess we should be getting back," she mumbled. The sound of four weary bodies slumping in four uncomfortable seats was enough to confirm her crew's agreement.

The recovery trucks for Koume, Bauer, Leopon and Hippo teams were already on site, and a fifth truck for the knocked out Anglerfish team was being dispatched. Erika peered through the vision slit of her cupola at the wreck of the brown Panzer IV. It was still firmly 'buttoned up' with no sign of anyone emerging to congratulate them, or otherwise.

"How's the transmission?" she somewhat nervously asked her driver, who grimaced at the question.

"Not great," she confessed, coaxing the heavy tank into a lurching start and turning it towards the encampment edge of the battlefield.

As the leviathan slowly made its way out of the battle arena, the girls opened the hatches and leaned out. This was partially because it was expected for victorious crews to show themselves to the spectators, and partly because the inside of the tank stank of sweat, cordite, and possibly something worse. Erika wondered if one of her crew had broken wind; personally she suspected her loader.

Personally, Erika was just glad to be able to air her sweaty body in the gentle breeze that was blowing. She was also looking forward to a shower, and feeling very grateful that Kuromorimine had brought a portable ablutions block as part of their camp.

As the tank trundled past the spectators and back towards its home base, it began to receive a smattering of applause, which grew stronger as the crowds intensified. Erika was under no illusions that the applause was for her in particular, nor really for Kuromorimine, who weren't always the most popular school. It was just polite appreciation for the winning team. Nonetheless, Erika was happy to accept it, and waved her thanks from where she stood in the turret.

It was only as they approached nearer to where Kuromorimine was based that the atmosphere changed. The wide avenue along which the Königstiger has to pass was lined with fans, all clapping, cheering or waving flags. Nearer to the camp, more and more Kuromorimine students in their smart black and crimson uniforms were intermingled with the fans or some even standing on their tanks. They were all cheering, with some of the more undisciplined ones waving their caps in the air. Erika began to understand what her victory meant for Kuromorimine. She had beaten Ooarai and the disgrace of the Nationals was, somewhat, expunged. It did not matter that it had only been an exhibition match; it did not matter that Miho hadn't even been the one in command (Erika felt a lurch in the pit of her stomach about that). All that mattered was that Kuromorimine had faced Ooarai again for the first time since the Nationals, and this time it was Kuromorimine - one; Ooarai - nil.

As the Königstiger made a clunking and clanking turn into the approach to the main vehicle park, some of the Kuromorimine students started to sing: a soft murmur at first, so that even though Erika could see their mouths opening and closing in unison, she couldn't make out the words. More and more students began to pick up the song, clapping their hands or stamping their feet in time to the beat during the pauses in the lyrics. It suddenly dawned on Erika what they were singing.

_Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein_ (stamp stamp stamp)  
_und das heißt:_ (stamp stamp stamp) _ Erika!_ (stamp stamp stamp)

Soon others came running, scrambling up on the tanks to belt out the words as loud as they could.

_Heiß von hunderttausend kleinen Bienelein_ (stamp stamp stamp)  
_wird umschwärmt_ (stamp stamp stamp) _Erika! _(stamp stamp stamp)  
_denn ihr Herz ist voller Süßigkeit,_ (stamp stamp stamp)  
_zarter Duft entströmt dem Blütenkleid._ (stamp stamp stamp)

Erika could feel herself turning scarlet at this sudden and unexpected hero's welcome. She was somewhat unsure how to react, and evidently her crew were too.

"What do we…?" one of her gun crew began, turning around from where she had been leaning out of the turret so she was able to face Erika.

"Eyes front!" Erika barked, setting her face into a stony, emotionless mask. She stared straight forward, hoping that by doing so, the cheering masses to her left and right would not be able to see the colour she had gone, nor the pearls of moisture forming in her eyes.

_Auf der Heide blüht ein kleines Blümelein_ (stamp stamp stamp)  
_und das heißt:_ (stamp stamp stamp) _ ERIKA!_ (stamp stamp stamp)


	26. Chapter 26

A big part of the day that all the girls were looking forward to was the after party. Once the main event had closed, the public had gone home, and the instructors and judges had disappeared (to a bar somewhere, probably!), all the teams congregated in a large circular area surrounded by some of the accommodation tents and wagons.

Chairs, tables and a dance floor were set up. Pravda brought out their 'non-non-alcoholic vodka'. Maginot and BC Freedom both tried to show that they were the ones who produced the best 'grape juice for adults'. Saunders and Anzio provided copious amounts of food. Anzio also demonstrated that the French-themed schools weren't the only ones who could provide 'grape juice for adults'. Even Kuromorimine brought out their 'real beer' or _wahres __bier_, as they called it.

It was quite a dizzying time for Erika. Everyone seemed to want to talk to her and she was still hugely elated by her victory in the exhibition match and the subsequent reception she had received from her teammates.

Looking around the mass of people, Erika was pleased to see so many girls having a good time. She felt that she was beginning to understand what Panzerkraft should be about; enjoyment and camaraderie, rather than just winning at any cost. This was perhaps where Kuromorimine was going to struggle the most, but attending events like this would certainly help.

As the official event was over, there was no requirement for the girls to stay in their uniforms. All of the Kuromorimine students remained in their black jackets and crimson shirts, but many of the other schools changed out of their tank-related uniforms. The girls from St. Gloriana reappeared in their usual school uniforms ('they probably have some weird rule about dressing for dinner!' Erika thought) as did many of the Ooarai girls, but some girls were wearing just casual clothing.

Perhaps, Erika wondered, there should be some sort of gathering like this (although not as big or wild) after every practice? If she could get the Kuromorimine students out of their uniforms and into casual clothes, maybe they would lighten up a bit? It was quite obvious that a lot of the Kuromorimine girls were struggling with social interaction with the other teams. They seemed to be gathered in little black-uniformed bunches, not really sure how to mix in and being largely ignored by the other schools.

An exception to this was Koume. She had already done a turn on the dance floor, taken her jacket off (_'I don't recall giving permission for that!'_ Erika said to herself, before admonishing herself for still thinking in 'old Kuromorimine' ways). Koume had also undone the top few buttons on her crimson shirt and was chatting with Mikko and Aki from Jatkosota High.

Deciding on a whim to join her Vice-Kommandant, Erika wandered over. She was pleased that, despite being only half in her uniform, Koume sprang to her feet as Erika approached.

"Good evening Kommandant!" she greeted Erika enthusiastically but respectfully. The four of them chatted briefly before the two Jatkosota girls drifted off to join their leader Mika.

Erika looked over at the knots and huddles of Kuromorimine girls and shrugged to Koume.

"I guess our school needs to learn how to have fun?" she said.

"Do you want me to go and order them to enjoy themselves?" Koume offered.

Erika hadn't considered this. Ordering Kuromorimine girls to have fun might just work. She gave another shrug and a nod to Koume. "Okay, why not give it a go?" she replied.

"Yes Kommandant!" Koume said with a cheery grin. "Are you alright for a drink?" Koume asked.

Erika had nearly a full glass of pale Kuromorimine beer in her hand (she wasn't sure if it was the alcoholic version or not) and so said she was fine.

"I'm going to get a drink for myself and my cousin," Koume said, indicating towards the bar.

"Oh, I didn't know you had a cousin in Kuromorimine," Erika said.

Koume shook her head. "She's not in Kuromorimine; she's in Ooarai. Yukari Akiyama."

Erika almost choked on her beer, spraying a mouthful of it and nearly drenching Koume.

"_What!?_" she exploded. "I never knew you're cousins with that f… with… her?!"

Koume gave one of her innocent, carefree, annoying smiles. "Didn't you?" she said, wide-eyed. "It's no great secret or anything. Yukari's mum is my aunt. Some people even say I have the same voice as my aunt."

"Well… now you mention it… the hair similarity sort of makes sense," Erika said, digesting this sudden revelation.

"I'll catch up with you later, Kommandant!" Koume said merrily as she headed off to get her drinks.


	27. Chapter 27

With Koume's exit, Erika was left temporarily on her own, unaware that she was being regarded at a distance by Ooarai's history buffs. An eavesdropper would not have to listen to much of their conversation to deduce that the quartet were slightly under the influence of some of the various intoxicating drinks that were on offer that evening.

"Maybe Kuromorimine are like the Zulu - a proud but aloof warrior nation," one posed.

"Or the Spartans, with strong love between their comrades and very capable soldiers, but very different to their neighbouring states," another suggested.

"That's it!" the remainder agreed with enthusiastic but slightly slurred words.

"And Erika is a good commander!" the original speaker said.

"Yeah like that famous one-armed naval commander..." her colleague added.

"Nelson?" a third chimed in.

"That's it!" the trio said in unison.

"But, I don't think she'd ever say 'Kiss me Hardy'..." one of the reki-jo giggled.

"Maybe not, but 'Kiss me Maho'...hmm!?" her friend suggested with a smirk.

"Ah, I see your point!" was said with general laughter.

…..

Looking around her, Erika spotted that Kay was still with Darjeeling, laughing and shouting with a large drink of something fizzy in her hand. Darjeeling's usual companions weren't with her, however. Erika spotted Assam dancing with Rosehip; the latter proving that being on crutches was no reason for her to limit her moves on the dance floor.

Suddenly some rhythmic drumming started up which was then accompanied by wild shouts and cheers from many of the girls. On a makeshift stage that was actually a tank transporter, Ooarai's Leopon, Hippo and Anglerfish teams appeared, although with Ayumi Yamagou standing in for Hoshino and Maho substituted for Miho. All thirteen of them were clad from head to toe in one-piece pink figure-hugging suits with fins attached, while perched on their heads were pink hats with crazy staring plastic eyes and an antennae which bobbed about madly.

Erika cringed. This was the famous (_infamous?!_) 'Anglerfish dance' which Ooarai apparently used as some sort of brutal training regime to punish failure. And now, because of Erika's victory in the three-on-three match, poor Maho was having to undergo this degrading treatment.

"_A-a-an, an, a-a-an, an,_" the girls began singing as they waved their arms and danced the mad dance.

_A-a-an, an, a-a-an, an,_

_A-a-an, a-a-an, an, an, an,_

_I want to meet that girl and will cross this sea,_

_The light on my head is my sign of love,_

_Burning, scorching and swaying,_

_Burning, scorching and swaying,_

_Come here, an, an,_

_Don't run, an, an,_

_Shaking the waves, an, an, an,_

_Let's meet tomorrow on that beach nearby,_

_Your light is the light of love,_

_Tempting, teasing and sparkling,_

_Tempting, teasing and sparkling,_

_I love you, an, an,_

_Don't cry, an, an,_

_It's OK now, an, an, an,_

_Your body is hot and warm,_

_Your light's a bit of a bother,_

_Cooking, boiling, steamy, steamy,_

_Cooking ,boiling, steamy, steamy,_

_The piping hot pot,_

_Piping, hot and delicious,_

_Hot in soy sauce with miso._

Some of them looked ready to die of embarrassment as they sang this utter nonsense. Maho was in the centre of the line up. She was sometimes slightly behind the others in her dance steps and occasionally looked across at her fellow sufferers to ensure that she was doing the right routine at the right time. Oddly though, Erika didn't see a bright red blush filling Maho's cheeks as it did to many of her gyrating companions.

'Hooray!' Erika thought. 'At least she is showing them that she is not embarrassed by this!' Maho had always been an expert at hiding her feelings. Although, Erika had noticed, at times during the spectacle it seemed like Maho was actually… smiling?


	28. Chapter 28

As the night drew on Erika was able to sneak away to a quiet spot in between the accommodation trailers and tents. She was feeling quite overwhelmed by everything and needed some fresh air. She was also unsure of how much she'd had to drink. People kept giving her beers and she wasn't sure how many were the non-alcoholic version and how many had been _wahres bier_. They both looked and tasted the same; the only difference was one of them got you shitfaced.

As she stood there having a quiet moment to herself she heard a noise behind her. A girl in a plastic neck brace was winding her way through the tents and trailers and for a moment Erika didn't recognise her. The black cape, of course, instantly gave it away but Erika was surprised to see that Anchovy had brushed her hair out of her usual twin ponytails and was wearing glasses, which gave her a totally different appearance.

"Anchovy!" Erika said with surprise in her voice.

"Yes?" Anchovy asked, stopping and turning to face Erika.

"Erm… nothing. I just didn't recognise you with your glasses, that's all" Erika stuttered.

"Well… contact lenses dry my eyes out if I wear them for too long," Anchovy explained.

"You're… leaving?" Erika asked, surprised that the brash and loud commander would be leaving the party so early.

"Yes," Anchovy replied. She shrugged. "The food is all prepared, the party is underway… they don't need me anymore."

Something about the way Anchovy said that struck a chord in Erika's heart. She quickly remembered hearing that Anchovy had single-handedly revived Anzio's Sensha-do club when she joined the school and had been their leader from the very start. Now that Erika was herself the Kommandant of Kuromorimine's Panzerkraft team, she understood what a lonely and removed position being in command was.

Erika was suddenly struck with a revelation. Beneath all the brashness and theatrical pomp, Anchovy was probably a very lonely and isolated girl. Her dedication to her team and to the sport impressed Erika deeply and she felt compelled to say something.

"Anchovy?"

"Yes?" Anchovy had been about to leave, but turned again to face Erika.

"Um… would your team like to train with us sometime? We could probably learn a lot from each other. I am sure Kuromorimine's training budget could cover your expenses, if that was an issue," Erika suddenly offered.

Erika couldn't tell for sure, but it seemed as if Anchovy's eyes were glistening slightly.

"We'd love to; that'd be great!" she said enthusiastically.

"We'll discuss it in the morning," Erika promised.

"Thank you!" Anchovy said with sincerity in her voice. She turned to go once again.

"Um… Chiyomi?" Erika said, using Anchovy's real name.

"Yes?" Anchovy turned back a third time, blinking behind her glasses.

"Thank you for all your hard work. And the food, of course!"

Anchovy smiled softly. "Anzio's food is the best!" she chimed. "And it's 'Anchovy'!" she said with a teasing grin.

"Of course!" Erika replied, grinning as well as they parted company.


	29. Chapter 29

Hardly had Anchovy walked off between the various tents and faded into the increasing gloom when Erika heard someone else approaching.

Stepping out from behind a parked trailer came Darjeeling and Orange Pekoe. They were both dressed in their school uniform, or at least Orange Pekoe was. Darjeeling was wearing her blue pleated skirt and black stockings. The school shirt and jumper were superfluous and indeed probably impossible to put on due to the large and bulky plaster cast that encased her torso and both arms.

Darjeeling's once immaculate hair was still braided on one side but had come loose on the other. Her clear blue eyes now had a slightly glazed and vacant look. She had one of her rigid plastered arms around Orange Pekoe, who also had an arm around Darjeeling's waist and seemed to be supporting her. Orange Pekoe was carrying Darjeeling's black shoes in her free hand, as Darjeeling was walking on the soft grass in just her stocking-covered feet.

"It's... (_hic_) Erika! Today's victor!" Darjeeling said loudly and not very coherently.

"Er... hi," Erika replied. Erika raised an eyebrow towards Orange Pekoe, who rolled her eyes.

"She got involved in a non-non-alcoholic vodka drinking competition with Katyusha," Orange Pekoe said, inclining her head at Darjeeling.

"To the... (_hic_) victor go the spoils!" Darjeeling said with a happy grin, seemingly to no one in particular.

"Ah. I see," Erika said, looking at the state that Darjeeling was in.

"Tea is not all I'm... (_hic_) good at drinking!" the blonde Anglophile said triumphantly.

"How's Katyusha?" Erika whispered to Orange Pekoe.

"Nonna's looking after her. She's being sick," Orange Pekoe replied in a flat tone.

"You can lead a horse to... (_hic_) vodka but you can't make it... (_hic_) drink!" Darjeeling misquoted, with an expression that suggested she'd just said the most profound thing in the world.

There was a question in Erika's mind that her intake of _warhes bier_ gave her the courage to voice: "Where's Kay?"

Darjeeling's face turned thunderous. "Kay is... (_hic_) still stuffing her fat face with... (_hic_) junk food!" she said with a shout. Orange Pekoe tried to quieten her.

_'Ooooh, has there been a falling out!?'_ Erika thought to herself.

"We're going back to the St. Gloriana accommodation; we've decided to call it a night," Orange Pekoe said.

Darjeeling's angry face mellowed to its usual pleasant visage. "Orange Pekoe has promised me a... (_hic_) foot rub with oil scented with rose petals!" she said dreamily,

"I promised I'd be gentle!" Orange Pekoe said to Erika, somewhat sheepishly, given that apparently her massages were the reason for Darjeeling's two fractured shoulders. Erika thought Orange Pekoe looked much happier than she had been when they had met earlier!

"Come on Lady Darjeeling; let's get back to our rooms," Orange Pekoe said in a respectful but firm way. "Thank you for the rose idea – she loved it when I suggested it!" Orange Pekoe hastily whispered to Erika as the couple passed her. Erika was left watching the pair as they awkwardly moved away, with Darjeeling staggering and lurching about the place. "That girl with the vintage hairstyle is pretty..." was the last thing Erika could just about make out from Darjeeling before Orange Pekoe finally ushered her out of sight.


	30. Chapter 30

Unsure if she wanted to return to the party or not, Erika wandered between the tents in the cool evening air. She had just turned a corner when she almost collided with someone. A pink someone.

Standing in front of her was Maho, still dressed in the Ooarai anglerfish suit that she had worn while performing that humiliating dance.

"Oh, hi Erika," Maho said at the unexpected meeting.

'Kommandant!' was what Erika had been about to rely with, but she stopped herself. _She_ was the Kommandant now. And a newly victorious one at that! "Hello Maho," she said. It felt very strange but oddly nice to call her former superior by her first name. Erika was, however, very worried about how Maho would feel towards her. The invincible Maho Nishizumi had been bested by a one-armed girl who had never been a team commander before, and then had been made to take part in some degrading punishment ritual as a result. Erika was sure Maho would storm past her and they would never speak again. Yet Maho was still standing in front of her.

Suddenly Maho spoke: "Congratulations on your victory! I was very impressed. And what a reception the team gave you!"

Erika was shocked. "Um… you mean that?" she asked. "There are no… hard feelings?"

"Why should there be?" Maho asked, sounding perplexed. "I wanted what was best for Kuromorimine, and you have amply demonstrated that you are the best person to lead them. I can see that the team is in safe hands… oh… er… I mean…" Maho actually blushed, fearing that she had insulted Erika.

"It's alright! I know what you meant! And thank you!" Erika said to reassure her former commander. Erika tried to move the conversation on from Maho's faux-pas regarding Erika's missing arm. "You didn't mind the… er… dance?" she asked.

Maho shook her head. "No... It was kind of… fun…?" Maho sounded confused, as if the word 'fun' was not something she was used to saying or fully understood. She looked down and ran her hands over the tight-fitting anglerfish outfit as she spoke.

The costume did nothing to hide Maho's enviable figure and Erika couldn't help her eyes being drawn to the fabric that was stretched tight across Maho's chest. And was that the hint of… a nipple?! Was Maho wearing anything under that?!

_'Wah! I'm__ being aroused by my former Kommandant while she's dressed as a giant fish! This is wrong on so many levels!'_ Erika frantically thought to herself.

"I will see you in the morning," Maho said, making to leave. "I have to get Miho to bed," she explained.

"Miho?" Erika said blankly.

"Yes… since she had her accident in that stupid Boko show, mother has been unusually protective of her," Maho said. "Mother wasn't even going to let her come to this Celebration Day, but Miho begged and finally mother relented as long as I promised to look after her. Miho's still at the party surrounded by all her friends but she's probably worn out and needs to rest. So I'm going to see that she gets an early night."

Erika suddenly felt that she didn't want her previous commander to leave her. "Maho!" she blurted out.

"Yes?" came the reply.

"I'll help you with Miho… um… if you want?" Erika spontaneously offered.

Erika was expecting a rejection or dismissal, but Maho actually smiled. "Thank you; that'd be nice!" she said. Erika suddenly found her single hand taken in one of Maho's fin-covered ones, and Maho led her by the hand through the maze of tents and trailers back towards the party.


	31. Chapter 31

Threading their way out of the surrounding tents, with Erika still being towed along by Maho, the duo came to where the Ooarai Anglerfish team and other fans were gathered. Erika was amazed when some of them cheered Maho as she came up, and Saori and Yukari actually threw their arms around the fish-attired former Kommandant of Kuromorimine.

'_GET OFF HER! GET OFF!'_ Erika's mind silently screamed. She couldn't deny, however, that Maho had suddenly become extremely popular with the Ooarai girls. They didn't seem to mind in the slightest that they'd lost the three-on-three match and were just grateful to Maho for taking part with them.

Miho was sat on a plastic chair in the centre of them. She looked cheerful but Erika could see she looked a little pale and drawn under her smiles.

Maho disengaged Erika and her from the admiring crowd and went over to Miho.

"Hey sis!" she said.

"Hey Maho!" Miho said warmly. Erika suddenly found herself very jealous of the close bond that evidently existed between the two girls.

"How are you doing?" Maho said quietly to the poor, battered commander of Ooarai.

Miho looked around her with the eye that wasn't covered by a gauze patch. She was clearly worried about saying something that might upset her teammates and so didn't want to be overheard.

"It hurts," she said quietly. Maho nodded. "Time for bed," she said, in a friendly but firm and flat manner. "You know what I promised mother!"

Miho didn't protest and simply nodded her consent.

"Miho is going to bed now," Maho announced to the group. One or two of the revellers looked like they were about to protest and insist that Miho stayed to enjoy more of the party, but one of Maho's icy glares was enough to silence them before they had even opened their mouths. Instead, some simply cheered and applauded as Maho helped Miho to her good foot and put her arm around her waist. Miho held onto Maho with her bandaged right arm over Maho's shoulders and her plastered right leg hanging a few inches off the ground.

"Can you give us a ha… oh! Can you help?" Maho asked, quickly rephrasing her question to Erika. Erika wasn't sure how much assistance she would be able to offer with one arm but she obligingly went to Miho's left side so she could put her single arm around Miho's waist. Miho couldn't put her left arm over Erika's shoulders as it was currently resting in a sling, but together Maho and Erika were able to support Miho sufficiently as she hopped and hobbled along between them.

"We have our own accommodation trailer; it's this way," Maho said to Erika, steering the trio in the direction she wanted.

Their progress was slow but steady. Erika actually felt quite honoured to be helping Maho and Miho. None of them spoke as they headed towards the Nishizumi trailer, although Erija couldn't help be feel that the two sisters were silently communicating somehow.

At a crossroads in the paths between the tents and trailers, the trio suddenly stopped as Maho looked to her right. Miho and Erika instinctively did the same. A short distance away, and completely obvious of the onlookers, two girls were passionately kissing, with their hands energetically exploring each other's bodies. It was not difficult to ascertain who they were. A mop of dark hair and a large red scarf-like garment instantly gave one away of Caesar from Ooarai's history club, while the long blonde hair and white tights of an Anzio uniform identified the other as Carpaccio.

Erika quickly felt embarrassed at the sight. Embarrassed for herself; embarrassed for the pair of unsuspecting romantics; and also, for some strange reason, embarrassed for Maho and Miho having to witness that spectacle.

Maho brought Erika back into reality by looking across Miho at her and giving a curt nod, which was clearly the sign for the trio to start moving again. They started off and soon moved out of sight, if they had eyes for anything else at that moment, of the two kissing girls. The pair had, however, been far to engrossed in each other to notice that they'd been observed.

Once the lovebirds were hidden from view, Maho emitted a sound that Erika had never heard before. She actually _giggled_.

"Looks like fun!" Maho said.


	32. Chapter 32

As the morning sun climbed higher into the sky, activity could be detected in the camp of the Sensha-do Celebration Day. Students started wandering around singly or in small groups. Some of the more industrious ones were even starting to disassemble their tents and stands. Some, like Pravda's commander Katyusha, were feeling very sorry for themselves after their antics of the previous night. Of the main St. Gloriana girls there was still no sign.

In the Nishizumi accommodation trailer there were two integrated camp beds, positioned on opposite sides. This morning, however, both of these were bare. The mattresses had been removed and placed together on the floor in the gap between the two beds. On top of these was a jumbled mass consisting of two blankets, one white duvet bearing the Kuromorimine logo and one Boko-themed duvet.

Hanging at the back of the trailer was a smart, new-looking Kuromorimine Panzerkraft jacket. An unusual feature of it was the left sleeve, which was pinned up on the chest near the lapel. A white and green Ooarai school uniform was draped over the back of a small chair near the door. Discarded in a heap on one of the bare beds was a pink one-piece anglerfish costume.

From under the covers on the makeshift bed on the floor there came the sound of soft, rhythmic breathing. A total of six legs, one of them encased in a white plaster cast, protruded at points from under the duvets. There were, however, only five arms, which were entwined around the naked occupants as they slumbered on.

**One week later**

Erika was feeling exceptionally pleased with herself as she walked through the Kuromorimine school grounds towards the team HQ building and her office therein. In her pocket were a number of letters. One was from the Schools Safety Committee, outlining that, after a series of extensive reviews, the Committee had concluded that Panzerkraft was a safe and appropriate passtime for high school girls to be engaged in, or at least no more dangerous that some other activities, and as such, the sport would continue to be practiced by school. There would be no changes to the rules or equipment; everything would be as it had been before.

The second letter was addressed to her in her capacity as the head of the Kuromorimine team. It was a formal letter from the Sensha-do Federation, confirming what was explained in the letter from the Schools Safety Committee and wishing the team a happy and prosperous future in Sensha-do.

The final letter was from the Sensha-do Federation to her personally. It was a warm and gratifying letter full of thanks for Erika's support for the support and for her idea of the 'safety questionnaires', which the Federation had been able to capitalise on to prove to the Schools Safety Committee that all participants had exceptional records of good practice and hardly any accidents in many years of competition. Erika smiled inwardly to herself at a job well done.

She had just reached the building which housed the Panzerkraft Team HQ when suddenly her phone vibrated in her pocket. She stopped outside the door and pulled her phone out, but hesitated when she saw the caller ID.

Miho.

It was unusual for Miho to call her in any event, but Erika felt especially awkward about talking to her since the events of that night following the Sensha-do Celebration Day where she'd ended up spending the night in the Nishizumi accomodation trailer. And not just in the trailer; in a Nishizumi sandwich! Which had undeniably been fun but was… kind of weird. She hadn't spoken to Miho since then.

Her thumb hovered over the answer button for just a moment too long and the call bounced to her voicemail. Erika knew that was cowardly of her, but perhaps for the best. She could listen to what Miho had to say and then decide how to respond.

She also noticed that she'd messed the alerts for not one but three text messages. Her phone must have buzzed in her pocket earlier that morning without her realising. One of the three was from Anchovy, which she ignored for the moment, as the other two were from Maho, which made her heart flutter.

She quickly passed inside the building and, while walking through the corridors, opened the first text from Maho.

_Let's go on a date on Tuesday._

That was all it said. So typically Maho-esque, with not a word wasted. Erika grinned, but then panicked as to what the second message might be. Maho cancelling, or worse, explaining that the first text had been sent to Erika in error and was actually meant for someone else?!

She clicked it open with a strange lump in her throat.

_If you want to that is?_

Now that sounded as if Maho felt she might have been too forward. There was even a slighly desperate sense too it. Poor Maho, Erika reflected. So used to giving instructions, but quite shockingly inexperienced when it came to social interaction. Feeling that she should have replied the instant she received the first text, regardless of whether it was day or night, Erika hastily composed a reply of acceptance to Maho's invitation, beaming a smile as she did so. Today was definitely a good day! Well... it would be as soon as she'd found out and dealt with whatever it was that Miho wanted.

Finally reaching the large wooden door to her office, she pushed it open and strode into the office, calling out a greeting to Koume as she did so.

"Moning Kommandant!" Koume replied, looking up from where she was pretending to work but was actually reading online magazine articles.

Erika settled herself behind her grand desk and flicked her computer on. There were a number of emails in the team inbox (which Koume should have dealt with!) and two in her personal one. She was surprised to see one was from Katuysha and the other was from a contact she didn't recognise called 'Voleyball Captin'.

'_But first things first'_, she told herself. She'd have to find out what Miho wanted. 'Well…' she thought, as her heart began to race again. 'Maybe not first'. There was still the text from Anchovy. She opened it and read the message.

_Hi Erika! Listen, I need your help! The School Safety Committee is thinking about banning students from cooking! Apparently they think it might be too dangerous for us! This will ruin Anzio! As you were so good with them about Sensha-do, can you help us?! And thanks for the training invite by the way - see you soon I hope?_

"Oh…" Erika fought down the urge to swear. She had just finished with one problem and now someone was asking for her help with another. That dampened her happy mood. She decided to put off listening to Miho's voicemail until after she'd read her email. She clicked on the one from 'Voleyball Captin'. It immediately dawned on her it was supposed to say 'Volleyball Captain' and was from that short, dark-haired girl from Ooarai. Erika read through the contents with her mouth hanging open. Among the spelling and punctuation errors, she gleaned that 'Duck Team', as they called themselves' had been impressed with Erika's safety questionnaire idea and even more impressed with her suggestion that they promote their beloved sport at the same time. Unfortunately, in their desire to show how safe Sensha-do was when compared to volleyball, the idiots had made the latter sound like an absolute bloodbath. Based on this, it appeared that the School Safety Committee was considering banning it in all high schools. The members of Duck Team were outraged and were trying to enlist Erika to help in their fight to preserve the sport.

"Hmpf!" Erika snorted, fed up of getting saddled with other people's problems. She clicked on the email from Katyusha, wondering if it was to do with the joint team they were considered putting together for a new tournament.

_Itsumi! The Great Katyusha has been told she can no longer ride on Nonna's shoulders! Students giving long shoulder rides to others has been branded as unsafe on health grounds! The Great Katyusha needs your help!_

The email continued on in this style for some while but the meaning was abundantly clear in the opening few sentences.

"Bah!" Erika mouthed. Not more pleas for help?! What did they think she was; a miracle worker?!

Now in a foul mood, Erika bit the bullet and brought up the voicemail on her phone to see what the brat from Ooarai wanted. She was startled to find that Miho sounded like she was sobbing into the phone.

"_Erika! It's Boko! They are thinking of banning Boko shows! They say they are not safe - it's all to do with how I got hurt in one. Please, Erika! Help! We have to stop this! It's Boko...!"_

"Nooooo!" Erika raged, slamming her phone down. Not again!

THE END


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